mall Solar Electric-powered Drone Aircraft Bolsters Ascent Solar's Product Portfolio
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTI), a developer of state-of-the-art, flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules, has announced it is collaborating with Silent Falcon UAS Technologies and Bye Aerospace to provide its lightweight, flexible copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaics to power the Silent Falcon™ unmanned aerial system (UAS). Silent Falcon™ is a small tactical UAS drone designed to be easily carried and used for longer-duration intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Recently unveiled at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Las Vegas, Silent Falcon™ represents the synergy of several new technologies, including ASTI's flexible photovoltaic modules, to provide a near silent, rapidly deployed platform that has multiple military and civilian applications. With three wing configurations available for different mission profiles, each Silent Falcon™ system could represent up to 30 modules.
John W. Brown, CEO, Silent Falcon™ UAS Technologies states: "We believe that today there is a large and growing global military and public safety agency market for small or tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In these markets alone, sales exceeding several hundred units per year are possible. As their use in these markets proves their utility and functionality, and as the FAA rules for domestic commercial, civilian use become more clear, we believe the market size and number of annual units sold could increase substantially."
Ascent Solar's President and CEO, Victor Lee, said, "Our collaboration on Silent Falcon™ represents a key strength of our product, namely that its lightweight and flexible nature can address multiple markets, from consumer electronics to building integrated PV, and that our manufacturing process is sufficiently agile to support them simultaneously. We see this emerging electric drone market expanding rapidly, with applications ranging from military to disaster relief with rapid deployment and recovery with little risk to human life."