Kea Aerospace Builds Stratospheric Future | Christchurch News

Christchurch News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now! · Aug 6, 2026 · 1m

Kea Aerospace just unveiled a massive 3,000-square-meter aerospace hub in Christchurch, built to assemble, test, and remotely operate their solar-powered stratospheric planes—each with a 35-meter wingspan designed to loiter in the upper atmosphere for years. The facility, officially opened by Defence and Space Minister Chris Penk, also includes a mission control center and is poised to scale up production to hundreds of aircraft. Bonus: it’s temporarily open to other aerospace companies, aiming to turn Christchurch into New Zealand’s first true aerospace hub—complete with a street named after…