who we are.
Pioneers of the Stratosphere
our story.
Born in a barn on a farmhouse in New York, Icarus was founded in 2023 by Henry Kwan after building autonomous drones at NASA and designing spacecraft meant to build factories in space. There, he saw what few would say out loud: satellites are too slow, too expensive, and too rigid for the world that’s coming.
He started from first principles, sketching systems, running the numbers, and designing a new kind of platform: a solar-powered aircraft that could fly for months at the edge of space. Then he packed up his 1996 Ford Bronco, drove to California, and assembled a team to build it.
In 2024, that vision became APOLLO, our first fully solar-powered, autonomous aircraft. It flew. It worked. No hype, just hardware in the sky.
Now we’re scaling the team, the systems, and the mission. Not to chase what’s next, but to build what should already exist.
company tenets.
First Principles
Truth seeking from fundamentals
Mission Driven
Win or be forgotten
Relentless Iteration
Radical transparency & idea meritocracy
icarus elite sports team.
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Henry Kwan
Henry is an Aerospace Engineer with a proven track record in advanced flight systems and strategic consulting. At Orbital (acquired by Northrop Grumman), he was part of the Advanced Space Programs team that secured a $935M NASA prime contract. He also designed and built drones for NASA flight research and was a finalist in two NASA aerospace design competitions. Before returning to aerospace, Henry advised clients on strategy and operations as a consultant at Deloitte. He holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech and TS/SCI clearance.
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Cameron Hargis
Cameron is a former U.S. Army Attack & Reconnaissance Troop Commander with 8 years of leadership experience. He led over 80 soldiers and managed a fleet of 8 AH-64 Apache helicopters and 4 Shadow drones valued at $400M. He also directed aerial operations with NATO partners across Europe and the U.S. and oversaw maintenance operations for a $300M helicopter fleet. Cameron is a qualified AH-64 Apache Pilot, Air Mission Commander, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from West Point.
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Raunaq Kumaran
Raunaq is a world-class aerodynamics engineer with a proven track record at the highest levels of motorsport and automotive innovation. At Red Bull Racing in England, he shaped the underfloor designs for the 2024 and 2025 Formula 1 cars, pushing the limits of performance and speed. Before that, he led aerodynamics design, simulation, and testing for Tesla’s next-generation vehicle programs at the California design studio. Raunaq holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University.
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Peter Kim
Peter is a mechanical engineer with over a decade of experience driving the design, development, and manufacturing of advanced EV powertrains and automotive transmissions. At Canoo, Faraday Future, and Honda R&D, he led critical hardware programs from prototype to production, specializing in electric drive units, transmission systems, and large-scale high-volume manufacturing processes. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.
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Shaunak Kale
Shaunak is a software engineer and roboticist who has built embedded imaging systems for drones at Teledyne FLIR and designed next-generation factory automation software at Rapid Robotics. He has led full-stack product development across hardware and software, specializing in embedded vision systems, autonomous platforms, and rapid prototyping. Shaunak holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara.
backed by world-class investors.
be where history is made.
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Los Angeles, CA
Icarus designs, manufactures, and assembles its solar-powered stratospheric birds at our headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Our Los Angeles facility is the engineering, manufacturing, and business nerve center of Icarus. One of the few places on Earth where an entire stratospheric drone is designed, built, and brought to life under one roof.
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Mojave Desert
Icarus tests its stratospheric birds at our flight development and testing area in the Mojave Desert, California. Spanning wide-open airspace and rugged terrain, the site is built for rapid testing, iteration, and validation of full flight systems. From launch to recovery, every major system is proven here before operational deployment.
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