NOCTUA logoNOCTUA
NOCTUA aircraft in flight

Technology

Silent flight for hours, not minutes

NOCTUA is a modular fixed-wing UAV built for near-silent, long-endurance sorties with hydrogen fuel cell power and onboard AI for real-time detection.

Designed for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and infrastructure surveillance, it offers up to 10 hours of flight with minimal ground support.

Silent Long Endurance

Whisper-quiet hours in the sky

NOCTUA aircraft preparing for flight

NOCTUA is built to make long-range aerial coverage affordable and discreet: a quiet electric drive, efficient fixed-wing design, and hydrogen fuel cell power keep it flying while keeping the noise footprint low.

Up to 10 hours of endurance with minimal ground support means more area covered per sortie, less crew fatigue, and fewer refuels. A CFRP airframe and aerodynamic planform turn efficiency into real mission time instead of overhead.

Key capabilities

  • Up to 10-hour, near-silent electric sorties
  • Low acoustic signature that leaves wildlife and people undisturbed
  • Composite structure optimized for efficiency and payload
  • Ruggedized for field conditions and changing weather

Modular Payloads

Swap-in payloads for any mission

The modular bay is built for flexibility: EO/IR cameras, radiometric sensors, comms relay kits, or research payloads click in without reworking the airframe, keeping the full system under 25 kg.

Power and thermal management keep sensors steady in heat, dust, or humidity. With up to 5 kg typical payload capacity, you configure for the mission and still keep the endurance that makes long coverage possible.

Sensor capabilities

  • Thermal and optical packages for day/night detection
  • High-resolution mapping kits for habitat and terrain
  • Radiometric and specialty sensors for science and safety
  • Edge processing for real-time detection and tracking
Thermal imaging sensor payload in operation

Autonomy & Onboard AI

Autonomy that thinks at the edge

NOCTUA operating in autonomous flight mode

PX4-based autonomy plans, flies, and adapts routes while edge AI detects events, tracks targets, filters data, and can stream thermal and RGB video live when teams need eyes on.

Tested fail-safes keep sorties safe, and continuous health monitoring plus live telemetry keep crews informed and ready to respond.

Autonomy stack

  • Mission planning, routing, and autonomous execution
  • Onboard AI for detection, tracking, and compressing insights
  • Live thermal and RGB streaming when teams need eyes on
  • Redundant comms plus health monitoring and failsafes

User-Friendly Ops

Field-ready and friendly to fly

Field teams need gear that assembles fast, survives rough transport, and keeps the UI simple. NOCTUA breaks down into portable kits, sets up without special tools, and runs with minimal ground support.

Mission software is built for clarity: preflight checklists, live telemetry, and post-flight reports that non-specialists can trust, accelerating ops from kit to launch.

Operational advantages

  • Quick-assembly airframe with minimal tooling
  • Portable ground control with resilient comms links
  • Mission planning UX designed for clarity under pressure
  • Post-flight data views that speed sharing and decisions
NOCTUA airframe being prepared before takeoff

Technical Overview

Specs at a glance

  • EnduranceUp to 10 hours
  • Wingspan5.10 m
  • Mass20–25 kg
  • StructureCarbon fibre reinforced polymer
  • PowerHydrogen fuel cell (battery option)
  • Flight controlPX4-Autopilot
  • PayloadModular bay, up to ~5 kg