COST Action proposal · Open Call oc-2026-1
Stratospheric vehicle design — a roadmap for the challenges ahead
A European network in preparation, bringing together the disciplines that stratospheric flight requires and that today work apart from one another.
The challenge
Uncrewed platforms flying between 18 and 22 km can provide persistent regional connectivity, continuous environmental observation and communications that survive the loss of ground infrastructure. Demonstrators have flown. What does not yet exist is a dependable, reproducible engineering basis for designing such vehicles.
The problem resembles neither conventional aviation nor spaceflight. Air density is a small fraction of its sea-level value, structures reach a slenderness at which linear aeroelastic theory no longer holds, aerodynamic surfaces work at Reynolds numbers where established correlations lose validity, and every constraint feeds a single energy balance that has to close across a full day and night.
Research groups across Europe address these questions in isolation, with different reference cases, different test protocols and different descriptions of the atmosphere. Results diverge for reasons unconnected to the physics, and progress inside each discipline does not accumulate across the field.
What the Action would produce
An agreed specification of the stratospheric design environment between 18 and 22 km, used as the common input to every Working Group.
An open benchmark and validation suite of coupled reference cases, so that independently developed methods can be compared directly for the first time.
Harmonised protocols for accelerated ultraviolet, thermal and mechanical ageing of thin films and ultra-light composites, validated through an inter-laboratory round-robin campaign.
Interface conventions that allow structures, aerodynamics, propulsion, energy and the atmospheric environment to be treated as one coupled system rather than in sequence.
A European Stratospheric Flight Design Roadmap setting out what is technically settled, what remains genuinely open, and what regulators need in order to act.
What joining involves
COST funds networking from its own budget. Joining the network at proposal stage carries no financial commitment, no co-funding, no institutional contribution and no letter of intent. No budget is requested from participants.
A researcher may hold a role in only one proposal per COST collection. Participation means an e-COST profile and a named place in one of the four Working Groups.
Working Group membership stays open after approval, and early-career researchers take real coordinating roles rather than nominal ones.
Taking part
To join the Network of Proposers, fill in the partner form below and send it back by e-mail. One row per person, and a second row if a younger colleague from the same group joins as a proposer in their own right. The data is used only to issue the formal e-COST invitation; it is not published on this site.
Concept note (PDF, 4 pages)
The challenge, the four Working Groups, what the Action would produce, and what participation involves.
Partner form (Excel)
One row per person on the “Fill in here” sheet. A second sheet explains why each column is asked for. Return it by e-mail.
Draft Technical Annex (PDF, 15 pages)
The full draft as it stands: challenge, objectives, work plan, deliverables and the Gantt chart. Comments by e-mail, quoting the section number.