How long can an AirHold tethered drone stay airborne on a single spool?

AirHold systems have been tested at 12.5 hours of continuous flight on a single tethered sortie across 340+ field deployments, with cable-reliability rates above 99.4% over 84,000+ logged tethered flight hours.

Which UAV airframes does AirHold integrate with out of the box?

AirHold ground stations and tether reels are field-swappable with 14 major commercial and defense airframes, including the DJI Matrice 350 RTK and Freefly Astro, plus Harris Aerial and custom platforms.

Is the AirHold tether system certified for commercial and defense operations?

AirHold is the first tethered drone system to achieve FAA Part 107 and CE/RED dual certification, with T-Grade kevlar-jacketed cable rated for -40°C to 70°C operation and IP54 ingress protection.

Who is currently operating AirHold tethered systems?

AirHold is trusted by 1,180+ commercial and government customers across 41 countries, including deployments with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, AT&T FirstNet, Shell Permian, and 27 NATO-aligned militaries for persistent ISR missions.

BOULDER, CO // FLIGHT OPERATIONS LIVE SYS-ID AH-CONDOR-22 · TETHER 1,840 m AGL

TETHERED DRONE POWER SYSTEMS

Hold your position in the air.

AirHold keeps commercially certified UAVs aloft for tested 12+ hours on a single spool — replacing battery-swapping fleets with one tethered aircraft and a ruggedized ground station. Engineered for crosswinds, RF-dense environments, and field-swappable integration with the airframes your program already operates.

Request a Flight Demo View Systems Catalog

12.5h Tested continuous flight, per tethered sortie
14 Supported airframes, out of the box
45mph Documented crosswind tolerance (ATC reel)
11 Issued patents on tether & power management

Schematic illustration of a Condor-22 ground station paying out tether to a UAV aloft

FIG. 01 CONDOR-22 / T-GRADE TETHER / ACTIVE TENSION CONTROL

VERIFIED FIELD TELEMETRY · AS OF Q4 2024

The numbers procurement can audit.

84,000+ Logged hours of tethered flight Across 340+ field deployments

99.4% Cable-reliability rate T-Grade kevlar-jacketed, 6,500N break

1,180+ Commercial & government customers Operating in 41 countries

27 NATO-aligned militaries served Persistent ISR & counter-UAS

CURRENTLY DEPLOYED ACROSS

01 Defense & Border Security
02 Public Safety & FirstNet
03 Oil, Gas & Mining
04 Utilities & Grid Inspection
05 Telecom Tower Lift
06 Maritime & Port Surveillance

Including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, AT&T FirstNet, Shell Permian, and allied federal operators.

THE AIRHOLD STACK · FOUR ENGINEERED SUBSYSTEMS

One tethered aircraft. Four named subsystems. Built to spec.

Every AirHold deployment is built from four hardened hardware pillars — engineered in Boulder, Colorado, tested across 84,000+ flight hours, and field-swappable in under eight minutes by a two-person crew.

T-Grade Tether Cable

Kevlar-jacketed tether conductor rated for 6,500N break strength, operating from -40°C to 70°C, with integrated data pair for payload downlink. Co-developed with TE Connectivity for next-gen ultra-lightweight conductors.

Break strength6,500 N
Temp range-40°C → 70°C
Data pairIntegrated

Active Tension Control Reel

Our patented ATC reel compensates for documented crosswinds up to 45 mph, auto-tensioning the spool without operator input. The first tether reel with FAA Part 107 and CE/RED dual certification.

Crosswind tol.45 mph
PatentsATC system
Cert.FAA P.107 / CE-RED

Modular Ground Power Station

Configurable from 1.5kW to 22kW in the field in under eight minutes. Hot-swappable rectifier modules, mil-spec connectors, and integrated UPS ride-through for momentary grid loss.

Power range1.5–22 kW
Field config< 8 min
UPSIntegrated

Airframe Integration Kit

Field-swappable mounting and power-conversion kits for 14 major UAV airframes out of the box — including DJI Matrice 350, Freefly Astro, and Harris Aerial. Custom airframe engineering on request.

Airframes14 supported
InstallField-swappable
CustomOn request

FIELD DEPLOYMENT LOG · 2024

Spec sheets stop at the hangar. Three missions that ran on AirHold.

Tethered drone holding station over a border sector at night

PERSISTENT ISR

Twelve-hour stare over a western border corridor.

A U.S. federal operator replaced a four-aircraft battery rotation with a single tethered Matrice 350 on an AirHold Condor-22. Twelve-plus hours of unbroken EO/IR coverage per shift, with payload telemetry riding the tether's integrated data pair back to the ground station.

DEPLOYED FOR · U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

Tethered drone providing temporary aerial coverage for a FirstNet cell node

TEMPORARY TELECOM LIFT

Aerial cell coverage when the tower is down.

AT&T FirstNet fielded an AirHold-tethered Freefly Astro to lift a temporary coverage payload over wildfire-affected terrain. The ATC reel held station through documented gusts while the integrated tether data pair backhauled FirstNet traffic to the ground station.

DEPLOYED FOR · AT&T FIRSTNET

Tethered drone monitoring a remote oilfield site at dawn

REMOTE-SITE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Permian flare-stack watch without a rotation crew.

Shell Permian deployed an AirHold-tethered platform for continuous methane and thermal monitoring across a remote well pad. One tethered sortie replaced a daily crew drive and an airborne patrol, streaming live EO/IR and gas telemetry over the tether for the full operational shift.

DEPLOYED FOR · SHELL PERMIAN

We stopped planning our sortie windows around battery state-of-charge. The AirHold tether turned the UAV into infrastructure — we point it at the sector, walk away, and the aircraft is still holding station twelve hours later. The Active Tension Control reel is the first one we trust in real crosswinds.

Defense ISR Program Director Allied federal operator · 2024 field evaluation

Request a Flight Demo