ALPKIT AERONAUT 2
It was only a matter of time before inflatable tents made their mark in lightweight camping, just as they did with family tents a decade ago. AirBeam pioneer, Vango, made the first inroads with the launch of the ultralight Project Hydrogen AirBeam tent in 2020. At £600 and weighing just 600g, it was definitely one for the specialist market. Now Alpkit has stepped up to the plate with the Aeronaut, which is more squarely aimed at the mainstream backpacker or cycle camper.
So, why go inflatable? In large tents, the big plus of inflatable poles is the ease of pitching – but in lightweight tents it’s more about the pack size and weight. The two-berth version of the Aeronaut weighs just 1.5kg – the lightest in our round-up – but perhaps more important is the lack of long poles in the pack. This means you can squash the tent into the bag and easily squeeze it into a corner of your rucksack or cycle packs. Vital, when every millimetre and gram counts.
The Aeronaut pitches outer-first, and once you’ve fixed the inner for the first time, you can leave it attached and pitch it all as one in the future, for a faster set-up. There are two valves so it can be inflated with a foot pump, or your bike pump when bikepacking.
On the first time of pitching, I actually found getting the shape of the single air pole right quite tricky and it took a bit of fiddling around to get it in the right position to make the flysheet nice and taut. Practice makes perfect, though, and I found it much easier second time around. Deflating and packing away is quick and easy, but make sure you squeeze all the air out of the tube before trying to get it in the bag.
All the materials used are light and durable – the flysheet is made from a 15D ripstop nylon and the two short poles used to give the shape at the back end of the tent are made from alloy.
The vestibule area provides a decent storage space for gear and inside there are storage pockets for small items and a few hanging points. The door stows away neatly into a mesh pocket near the foot box.
An optional footprint adds another 225g to the total weight.