The Teruel airport consortium awards the concession of the 1,500 m2 warehouse of the former Army barracks in Caudé for 25 years to the British company Elson Space, which innovates in HAPS.
The British company Elson Space, which works in the aerospace sector, has been awarded the concession for 25 years of a 1,500 square metre warehouse at Teruel airport, right where the former Army barracks was located. From this southern polygon of the airport, it plans to build, launch and pilot HAPS drones in facilities that it will begin to equip in October 2024.
The consortium awarded the contract in a public tender, and it states that the successful bidder must pay a fee of 53,755 euros per year, which raises the amount to 1.34 million euros during the 25 years that the concession of the facilities will be valid. The concession agreement is extendable for another 10 additional years.
During the first years of activity, it will develop a research phase prior to commercial activity, which from 2028 will be with a staff of about 34 engineers and technicians. This will be the initial phase, since the design of the ship allows for modular expansion, which makes future expansions possible.
The contract is through the Spanish subsidiary of Elson Space, a company founded by Andy Elson, a British businessman and adventurer who has worked hand in hand with Silicon Valley multinationals with isobaric chambers and breaking altitude records in balloons. He has indicated that the province is an ideal location for aerospace activities due to the climate of the environment. He even assured that the "Teruel airport will be the Cape Canaveral of stratospheric flights."
Six bids have also been submitted for the tender for the construction of the HAPS airship production hangar or warehouse requested by Sceye. This is an investment of 43.5 million euros (excluding VAT) with a completion period of 20 months. This company, which has carried out several stratospheric flights in New Mexico, completed its first full daytime flight in the stratosphere in August 2024 while remaining over an operational area. Sceye's objective is to launch Spain's first stratoport in Teruel, as announced in July 2022, an ambitious project whose activity is expected to begin in 2026.