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nilremerlin

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nilremerlin

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Monday, 12/18/2006 3:05:37 AM

Monday, December 18, 2006 3:05:37 AM

Post# of 157299
'Stratellite' phone, Internet system tested at Plant 42
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Friday, December 15, 2006.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer
PALMDALE - Communications entrepreneurs combined new and old technologies Thursday in an attempt to spread affordable telephone and Internet service to remote areas of the planet.

Using a gas-filled blimp reminiscent of those that made air travel possible in the 1920s and 1930s, officials of the Sanswire Networks and GlobeTel Communications corporations sent an array of 21st century electronics gear aloft above U.S. Air Force Plant 42, then used it to connect a gaggle of media representatives to phone and wireless computer services.

In addition, a blimp-mounted camera gave onlookers a bird's-eye, 360-degree view of the area around Hangar 704, the current base of the Sanswire 2A dirigible.

The 2A is the second test dirigible built by Sanswire for the development of its "Stratellite" communications system, intended to use high-flying blimps to replace space-borne satellites as telecommunications platforms.

Peter Khoury, chief executive officer of GlobeTel, Sanswire's corporate owner, said it was fitting to demonstrate the capabilities of the Stratellite system in Palmdale.

"I know (Palmdale) is a little removed, and a bit remote as well, but I think most people know that it's known as a Mecca for the aviation industry and defense industry," said Khoury, who has been at the helm of GlobeTel for about two months.

"What you will see today, besides launching the ship, is launching a suite of products" developed by GlobeTel for communications purposes, Khoury said.

"The Stratellite was conceived as a solution to deliver wireless communications from the stratosphere," he said.

Using solar-powered propeller motors to get it, and keep it, in position at an altitude of about 65,000 feet, each blimp is designed to send and receive signals from an area about the size of Texas "in a cost-effective and cheap way," Khoury said.

The number of potential customers each ship might serve will depend on a variety of factors, including how often, how long and with what equipment each person connects to the system, said GlobeTel's president, Ultrich Altvater.

Because of the Stratellite's mobility, ships could be situated over areas where other communications systems have been knocked out, Khoury said, offering New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina as an example.

The unmanned, remotely controlled ships also could be used to by the military to provide surveillance of, and relay communications about, insurgent activities in Iraq and other battle zones, Khoury said.

They also could be used to keep track of activity along a nation's borders, he added.

"Of course, we need to prove this, and today is about proving the concept," Khoury said.

For demonstration purposes, the Sanswire 2A remained attached to a cable that allowed it to rise about 100 feet above Plant 42's tarmac.

Douglas Murch, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel recently named Sanswire's president, said Thursday's demonstration was the beginning of the Stratellite's flight-test program.

Untethered tests of the craft will be conducted in coming months at Edwards Air Force Base, Murch said.

"Where we go from here is to put our free-flight, full-scale motors and controllers on the airship, and make this a 40-knot vehicle and begin free flight over Edwards," he said.

Those tests can be conducted without certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, Murch said.

Those tests will lead to the development of the Sanswire 3, a 500-foot-long airship, company information showed.

The 127-foot-long Sanswire 2A holds 27,800 cubic feet of gas, which allow it to rise to about 30,000 feet, Murch said.

"What you have on this ship is a fully integrated set of avionics and flight controls as well as a lifting-gas system that is designed specifically for a high-altitude mission," he said.

"We also have a payload of the HotZone," a wireless router created by GlobeTel that combines Internet, voice-over-Internet and video-relay capabilities, Murch noted said.

In November, GlobeTel announced the installation of a HotZone wireless broadband network in a small city northeast of Mexico City.

Providing service to such areas, where the installation of ground-based communications systems is cost-prohibitive, becomes feasible with the Stratellite system, said Dan Erdberg, president of GlobeTel's VoIP division.

Stratellite also would allow Sanswire to establish or re-establish communications networks faster and "at a cost more attractive and less than anything on the market today," Erdberg said.

"We feel that, especially in developing countries, where the infrastructure is not there, this could be a real unique application," he said.

"Half of the world's population has never talked on a telephone," Murch said. "Our technology will allow them to do that," he said.

In time, the system "will really change the world," Erdberg predicted.

GlobeTel's headquarters is in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Sanswire's headquarters is in Atlanta.

GlobeTel was registered as a Delaware corporation in July 2002 and began trading publicly a month later. It completed its acquisition of Sanswire in April 2004.

In July 2005, Sanswire moved its Stratellite production facility from San Bernardino to Palmdale, where the company test-flew its first lighter-than-air ship, the Sky Dragon, in November 2005.

Among those present at the initial test were officials representing the Air Force, which has control over Plant 42; the Army, the Navy, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In February 2006, the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. began testing the P-791 in the flight space above Plant 42.

The blimp-like craft, under development by the secretive Skunk Works division of Lockheed Martin, was described as a "proof-of-principle" vehicle to help engineers learn more about airships.

The large white craft had twin torpedo-like sections joined in the center, with a cockpit beneath. Four fan-like motors attached to the sides and rear moved the vehicle on the ground and in the air.

Pentagon officials are exploring the use of such airships for moving military troops and equipment together, thereby saving time and money. Personnel and heavy weapons currently are moved separately.

In 2003, Plant 42 hangars 703 and 704 served as locations for Steven Spielberg's romantic comedy-drama "The Terminal," starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

This year, Hangar 703 and a portion of Hangar 704 - both at Plant 42's Site 9 - were used to film portions of Disney's sequels to 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.

bwilson@avpress.com

http://www.avpress.com/n/15/1215_s2.hts

nilremerlin

New long-term bull market from Oct. 16, 2008 to Feb. 5, 2018
http://stariq.com/marketweek.htm

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