IN AIR gathers French airborne facilities, including research aircraft of the SAFIRE Fleet, stratospheric balloons from CNES and will develop an access to long-range UAVs at mid-term.
The airborne platforms open for access are :
- research aircraft (ATR 42, Piper Aztec) allowing to carry up to 2 tons of scientific payload ;
- Zero Pressure Balloons (ZPBs), a unique mean to lift up several hundreds of kilos of scientific payloads in the stratosphere;
- Super Pressure Balloons (SPBs) allows to conduct long duration mission near the tropopause;
- Free-release balloons (SBs) allow quick release, potentially on alert, of 3 kg-payloads up to 33 km;
- Boundary Layer Balloon (BLs) used to document boundary layer or interfaces.