There were two variants planned, AirStrato Explorer with a target flight ceiling of 18,000 m and AirStrato Pioneer with a target flight ceiling of 8000 m. It was planned to carry a 45 kg payload consisting of surveillance equipment, scientific instruments or additional battery pods for extended autonomy.

Although capable of carrying less payload than a helium or solar balloon, the aircraft had a much lower cost per mission and could stay in the stratosphere for longer periods of time.

Unlike a weather balloon that could not be steered and relied on wind forecasts to predict its trajectory the AirStrato could be remote controlled by a pilot on the ground.

At that time ARCA designed the UAV to fulfill its own requirements for high altitude equipment testing and had a commercial version of the aircraft for consideration.

After a series of runway testing on rough ground, suspensions were added to the landing gear to improve handling and the number of electric motors was increased to four.

[3] For nine months ARCA did not make public any news on the progress of the program, until November 10 when it released a short teaser on the aircraft featuring two other models in red and yellow colours performing flights.

On November 25 it made public the product website alongside a much longer video presenting the aircraft taking off from a pneumatic launcher and performing low altitudes flights.

Additional funding, totaling $750,000, was to be invested if ARCA met certain development milestones, including flight tests and FAA certification.

[5] The airframe is constructed entirely from composite materials making possible for radio antennae to be placed inside the fuselage instead of outside such is usual for normal aircraft.

[6] Six electric driven propeller engines are installed on the wings that generate a combined thrust of 250 lbf at sea level.

The GPS is linked with the transponder providing both altitude and coordinates, capable of being integrated into the US NextGeneration Air Transportation System.