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Vern help us out.
1. What do you estimate the final expen$e for S1 was ?
2. S1 was looking pretty shipshape to me. I knew you were a hard working honest guy when I look at the picture of you holding up that alumminum truss. The ship was eventually float tested in the hangar. Where did it go ? Is it still in San Bernadino ?
What Happened to S1 ???
I almost asked the same question last night when I saw Vern was enlightening us on last years events.
So let's see if Vern can give us some insight. He started the construction. From what he told us last night my questions re-Molen & company have now been confirmed.
Pedator spare parts I'll bet.
symphyl Thanks,
I had not seen the first picture until your link.
Also see that Yahoo's BLOGbeta shows that WIREDnews & a wireless blog have picked up the story.
I wish I was in Florida this week to see what the Sanswire Team will be exhibiting @ the conference you posted. Mide where are you ?
Thanks montanar&voip, but things are dissappearing pretty fast both YahooEspana links now tell me the pictures are unavailable.
I learned a long time ago to archive what I find as soon as I find it on the WWW.
I like your assumption that the gas cell is 1of5. That would make it easy to scale upto S3. But I'll bet they'll be testing this 1/5th version first.
TOO ALL keep linking XXX asuming you have the right link.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000462.html
Another way to help TAG it with del.icio.us
I used: HAA,stratellite,Sanswire>E
I love the DD shown here & verified on Rocky's board.
1) The current AP link to the Chang article does not show the pictures of S2 & Bob Jones. I did manage to see them from 2 links posted earlier here or on Rocky's board, but they appeared to be on a spanish page.
2) I do hope you are right about the the gas cell shown as being 1 of 5. But does that mean Ms. Chang did not see a fully assembled S2? or Did they not allow her photographer to take a picture of it? If your assumption is true than the final version of S2 does difer from the GTE NR drawing.
3) Let's not forget that S2 is a "Technology Demonstrator" & we should not expect it to be as fully developed as S3.
How can we help GTE get the message out. The AP article showed a page rank # of 127 when I read it this morning @4:30am CSt. If all of us who want to see this bird reach the stratosphere would request that article multiple times XXX's TODAY we can help move that all important page rank # in the right direction. Come on you 37,000 share holders show AP this is very important news.
Thanks Jim, I had trouble connecting with your link. I finally found the article @ the link below. I like the second illustration. I saw 3 of the 4 CG's on Raytheon's site last week. While the article flatly states the programs preference for non-ridgid airships I was encouraged by Mr. Clark's statement regarding the sensor technology "The cellphone industry is the driver, as the technologies are not significantly different,"
http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/08/15/208385/Higher%20ground%20Stratospheric%20airships%20...
Is anyone near Wichita?
I've walked in on many conferences like this. Go early, find your favorite subject on the presentation list and sit in. I've rarely been asked for credentials. If someone wants to talk to Raytheon people this will be the place on September 25-27.
6th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration and Operations Conference (ATIO)
Early Bird Registration Deadline is Quickly Approaching!
You still have time to register for the 6th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference. (ATIO)
Register before 25 August 2006 to save $100 off the regular registration fee!
6th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference
"General Aviation to Large Transports: Designing the Next Generation Air Transportation System"
25 thru 27 September 2006
Hyatt Regency Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
To register for this conference and tours, visit www.aiaa.org/events/atio [more info]
Exciting Special Events at ATIO 2006!
Reserve your space today, to take part in one of the four exciting technical site tours being offered on Tuesday, 26 September at ATIO 2006 this year!
Raytheon Aircraft Company
Cessna Aircraft Company
Spirit AeroSystems
Bombardier Learjet
A luncheon will immediately follow the technical site tours, at the Hyatt Regency Wichita. This luncheon will provide attendees with the opportunity to network with peers and representatives from each of the four major aircraft companies! Lunch is provided in the registration fee where indicated; additional tickets available for purchase.
AIAA would like to extend a Special Thanks to our Technical Site Tours and Luncheon Sponsors:
Register today at www.aiaa.org/events/atio [more info]
sighting 60809
I encourage all speculating about Raytheon to follow this link and look at the images supplied by Raytheon. As well as, NOW is the time to contact your senator and encourage them to vote infavor of DARPA's $16.3 million request if you want any monies to trick-L down to GTE. The sad truth about government spending is the long wait for LE$$.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060809_isis_airship.html
Near Space Airship Fate Rests With Defense Budget
By Jeremy Singer
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 09 August 2006
06:42 am ET
Several companies have begun design work on a prototype airship that could hover at an altitude near space where it would be able to track ground and aerial targets for up to a year at a time. Whether the program, known as Integrated Sensor is Structure (ISIS), moves beyond the design stage any time soon, however, will depend on the final version of the 2007 defense budget.
The U.S. House of Representatives funded the full $16.3 million request for the effort in its version of the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act, which passed the House in June. The Senate Appropriations Committee, however, has recommended denying the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's entire $16.3 million budget request for the program in 2007. The bill is currently awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
The House and Senate will address the issue when they meet to resolve differences between their bills later this year.
Jenny Manley, a spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, did not respond to a request for comment on the committee's proposed cut to the ISIS program.
Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said that program officials declined to comment on the ISIS effort at this time.
The Air Force Research Laboratory of Rome, N.Y., has awarded several contracts to industry to begin work on various aspects of the ISIS program. The lab awarded a two-year, $10.3 million contract to Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors of Akron, Ohio, in June to begin work on the airship platform.
The lab awarded two contracts earlier this year to Northrop Grumman Corp. for the ISIS effort. Northrop Grumman Space Technology of Redondo Beach, Calif., will develop a transmit-and-receive module for the radar sensor that is expected to be lightweight and extremely power efficient under a $6.8 million contract awarded in April. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector, which is based in Linthicum, Md., is developing an antenna that can handle radar as well as transmit data simultaneously under an $8 million contract. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems of El Segundo, Calif., also is working on a design for the antenna under an $8 million contract.
If the program does go forward, the airship, will feature a radar sensor of "unprecedented proportions," according to a Pentagon document.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's 2007 budget justification materials, which are posted on the agency's Web site, describe ISIS as a sensor capable of conducting surveillance and tracking hundreds of time-critical targets in both urban and rural environments.
The sensor is being designed to track airborne targets at a range of 600 kilometers, and ground targets at a range of 300 kilometers while distributing that information to U.S. forces through hundreds of covert wideband communications links, according to the budget justification materials.
The agency wants the sensor to detect and track targets including aircraft, cruise missiles, tanks and troops, according to briefing charts posted on the agency's Web page. The agency also wants the sensor to detect mortar and artillery fire.
Challenges involved with building the system include finding ways to keep the weight, power requirements and logistics requirements minimal, according to the budget justification materials.
The ISIS sensor would be the largest radar sensor built to date, and is much larger than the Sea Based X-Band Radar sensor built for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, according to Michael Wechsberg, director of radio frequency programs and ISIS program director at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
Much of the size of the Sea Based X-band Radar, which features a Raytheon-built sensor, is material needed to keep the radar sensor stiff, Wechsberg said in a July 19 interview. The company is able to avoid this issue on ISIS by using the structure of the airship itself to stiffen the sensor, which will be placed either inside or outside the craft, he said.
One way of handling the need for the antenna to transmit and receive data simultaneously is a technique called time multiplexing, which involves changing the function from sensing to transmitting data in less than a second, Wechsberg said.
The Missile Defense Agency is developing another large airship, known as the High Altitude Airship (HAA) that would operate at the near-space altitude, which is generally defined as the area around 20 kilometers. Lockheed Martin is under contract to build and demonstrate the HAA.
However, the HAA project is primarily focused on demonstrating the airship platform in the near term, while ISIS is more focused on the payload, Wechsberg said. The payload aboard the HAA represents about 1.7 percent of the platform's weight, while the payload aboard ISIS accounts for roughly 30 to 40 percent, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's briefing charts.
Ron Browning, HAA business development director for Lockheed Martin, said during an Aug. 1 briefing for reporters that the Missile Defense Agency has not yet chosen the type of payload that will fly aboard the HAA in its first prototype flight, but said that the available room could host a communications or optical sensing system based on mature technology that would not add risk to the HAA development effort.
The small amount of dedicated payload space aboard the HAA means that that sensor will be far less capable than that envisioned for ISIS, Wechsberg said.
Dave Filicky, Lockheed Martin's ISIS program manager, said that the company will be able to build on its experience with the HAA as it designs the ISIS platform.
However, ISIS poses its own challenges with the platform, due to the size of the sensor as well as the longer duration that it is expected to hover over particular areas.
ISIS will require a lighter platform to deal with the larger radar sensor, and systems that can operate for long periods at relatively low power, Filicky said in a July 19 interview.
"If it wasn't brand new, never been done before, [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] wouldn't have funded it," Filicky said.
The HAA is currently expected to be demonstrated in flight for the first time around 2008; ISIS is scheduled for a reduced scale prototype flight in 2009, with plans for a full-scale demonstration to be determined afterwards, Wechsberg said.
Like ISIS, the HAA also is encountering some resistance in Congress, where members of the House and Senate have both moved to trim the $40.1 million request for the program in 2007 in order to steer funding towards other missile defense efforts. The House version of the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act cuts the request for the High Altitude Airship by $20 million, while the Senate version of the bill reduces it by $25 million.
These folks seem to have a WiMAX contract in Mexico.
Broadband for tourists ?
Does anyone have info Navini Networks ?
Ultranet2go Launches Pre-Mobile WiMAX in Mexico
http://www.wirelessiq.com/crosslink/topstories/1476.html
August 4, 2006
Ultranet2go, a division of ZOMA Telecom of Mexico, commercially launched service in Veracruz and Aguascalientes, Mexico, using pre-mobile WiMAX 802.16e wireless broadband solutions from Navini Networks, Inc. Ultranet2go already offers service in Puebla using Navini's Ripwave MX solution.
"We are successfully bringing true personal broadband wireless access to Mexico," said Patricio Zorrilla, chief executive officer of Ultranet2go. "Our customers in Puebla have portable high speed wireless Internet access and with over 50% growth, we are excited about expanding across Mexico. In addition, we can now provide true roaming between the cities of Puebla, Veracruz and Aguascalientes."
This constitutes approx 3,200,000 POPs spread between Puebla with 1,700,000 and Veracruz with 800,000 and Aguascalientes with 700,000.
"With Veracruz being a major commercial hub and tourist beach resort, having service that extends offshore is a valuable feature," Added Zorrilla.
Navini's wide-area wireless broadband solution, powered by smart beamforming, is called Smart WiMAX. This unique technology provides a very powerful and wide range of coverage and with easy cellphone-like activation, subscribers can quickly get up and running -- anytime, anywhere in the coverage area.
"Today, consumers in Mexico can enjoy the freedom that only portable wireless broadband can provide -- high speed internet access anytime, anywhere within the service area," said Roger Dorf, president and chief executive officer, Navini Networks. "Smart WiMAX positions Ultranet2go to take advantage of next generation mobile broadband wireless access, 802.16e-based WiMAX."
"Navini Networks provided us with a seamless upgrade path to mobile WiMAX that allows us to continue to expand and increase our subscriber base now," added Zorrilla. "With portable service, competitive pricing and plug-n-play installation, customers (and tourists) are able to use their broadband at work, at home, on the beach or in the park ... wherever they want."
Future deployments are planned for Tampico, Matamoros, Xalapa, Coatzacoalcos, Cuernavaca, Chilpancingo and Iguala.
merlin, Thanks for that informative article on WiMAX.
Have you heard about FONERO. They have managed to attract support from Google & are trying to establish a worldwide P2P WiFi mesh network. They currently offer the best price for a Linksys G router. Only $5.00 if you participate in hosting their network. GTE should take notice of this business plan for HotZone.
The article you supplied showed me how the Super-Hub can integrate into existing networks & that WiMAX is the next platform to deliver all those bytes ( 0s & 1s ).
sighting 60721
Hey you all stop eating those taco chips & crying in your beer. my G@@GleBot just delivered this. I think this is the first Sanswire NR carried by UPI. Maybe the world will find out about GTE.
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060721-111949-2868r
Sanswire allowed to test airborne wireless
PALMDALE, Calif., July 21 (UPI) -- Sanswire Networks received permission from the U.S. Air Force to flight test a high-altitude airship relay for wireless communications.
Sanswire's parent company, GlobeTel Communications, said late Thursday that the test program will involve a series of flights at Edwards Air Force Base in California that could run through the end of the year.
The company's "stratellite" airships are made from composite materials and capable of a long-term presence on station at altitudes between 55,000 and 65,000 feet. From that height, the airship will have a clear line-of-site to any major U.S. city and can relay voice, video and data signals without the need of a satellite.
sighting 60717 Remember Techsphere?
I see the blimp as antenna also got some press today. I still have an old picture in my files of the Techsphere with "Sanswire" painted on it.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=20336
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=20336
And for all you speculating on breaking the LTA altitude record GTE only has to reach 20,000+ feet.
Techsphere Systems International, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cyber Defense, is located in Atlanta and Columbus, GA, is the manufacturer of low, mid and high altitude airships. Together with their teaming companies, Techsphere will design and build unique airship platforms for use in many areas including surveillance, the military and wireless communications. The current spherical airship design holds the world altitude record at over 20,000 feet. http://www.techsphere.us
German Supplier?
Don't we have a tech partner in Germany?
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
TAO-Technologies in Cooperation with the University of Stuttgart of Germany
Led By Professor Dr. Bernd Kroplin
,(thanks Rock for making this easy to find!)
Why can't Dr. Kroplin help Sanswire check these parts before they are shipped "the cross-brace structural support for the fins has also been delayed from the company's German supplier"
Thanks Grapes, as I was reading the story from your link my Slashdot RSS feed brought up the same story. For all those interested I encouraged you to go to Mr. Paglee's VoIPWiki Blog @> http://www.voipwiki.com/blog/
He has some very interesting in sight into VoIP. Dig deep there is alot there.
JF7, Link worked fine, thanks.
Clearwire delivered via Sanswire + Hotzone wouldn't that be sweet. The article gave me a good idea where the big players are going in this wacky world of wireless. The service providers are falling all over themselves to deliver the quadruple play and trying to cover their @SSets. As we've been told WiMax is the next stop in the WWofW.
sighting 60704
CNET put this little photo gallery together showing the real state of LTA utilization.
http://news.com.com/2300-11395_3-6087845-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
Alotta' big names with long DOD histories. All but one are semi-rigid craft. As for the new STRATxx plan the inflation strategy is right otta' ATG's play book & the same way SWR launched their demo earlier this year(I believe the SWR demo flight was one of my first"sightings" posts on this board.).
Thanks Vern for your valued insight.
Best of luck on your current projects.
I would be interested in your opinions concerning all the other LTA offerings! See my next post for CNET's top 10.
Frank, I think you may have forgotten that South Korea has been testing their own HAA for the last 2 years. I always wondered why. It is now painfully obvious to me that they need an early warning system to look over that Pork Chop hill. I would also venture to say that South Koreas efforts have been encouraged by US / MDA interests.
Maybe GTE could help GOOGle reach that "last mile"?
Google has been buying up alotta dark fiber in the last few years. Their Muni/WiFi efforts in San Francisco show they are trying to push the WEB 2 ethos. But their recent direct payment plan sounds like a perfect match for MagicMoney. A true SuperHub will need alotta fiber. JMO
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=98334&print=true
Is Google Going Dark on Fiber?
JUNE 30, 2006
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board), which once seemed as though it was emerging as a competitive threat to network operators, is now believed to be taking a different view of building its own fiber-based backbone network.
Rumors abound that Google is rethinking the businesses it wants to emphasize, and running its own fiber-fed nationwide network doesn't appear to be on the top of its "things-to-do" list.
One well-placed source in the equipment community says the company is choosing to lease long-haul network capacity from existing carriers, instead of lighting up dark fiber coast-to-coast.
Such a network, if ever constructed, would vault Google deep into the telecommunications business, and it might have helped the company expand its muni WiFi, grid computing, and broadband video initiatives. (See Google's Own Private Internet and Google Hypometer.)
On the other hand, analysts point to several reasons why Google may have cooled to the idea. And those reasons, coupled with the decision to lease capacity from other carriers, may help explain its wide-eyed interest in the issue of network neutrality.
First, Heavy Reading chief analyst Scott Clavenna says there is no real shortage of long-haul capacity. "Building a new backbone from scratch may not be warranted in the U.S., as there is still lots of 10G capacity available from wholesalers at good prices," Clavenna says. "I would think managed wholesale capacity is available from at least a half-dozen providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Qwest, Level 3, Global Crossing) that would fight hard for this business and provide Google with a high-capacity backbone."
Google has never spoken about the plans and was true to form Thursday. "I'm unable to comment on rumor or speculation," writes Google spokesman Barry Schnitt in an email response to Light Reading.
Earlier, Light Reading was among the first to report that Google was buying up dark fiber and developing portable data centers as it explored the idea of a Google network. (See Links: Facing the Google Future.) Some thought Google might light the fiber to create an "alternate Internet" for its users and advertisers. Others thought the network might be used to expand Google's municipal WiFi networks to cities throughout the U.S.
But Google has learned a lot over the past 18 months about the logistical, regulatory, government, and public relations hassles of being a telecom provider. The company, sources say, grew tired of addressing rights-of-way, privacy, and other network-related issues during its recent WiFi efforts in San Francisco, leading it to relinquish much of the project to its "telecom partner" EarthLink Inc.
Google's decision not to build also seems consistent with its more recent messages to analysts and investors. The company has been saying that any new major development projects or capital expenditures must make sense in the context of Google's core advertising and search businesses.
Analysts at UBS reported last November that Google had engaged Infinera Inc. for the long-haul equipment and ADVA Optical Networking (Frankfurt: ADV - message board) for the metro gear. The report suggested that the long-haul DWDM network could help Google negotiate better peering agreements with other backbone ISPs. (See Infinera: $1B IPO Imminent?.)
Like Google, Infinera has never spoken on the record about the project. "We're not going to touch that one," Infinera spokesman Jeff Ferry told Light Reading Thursday.
One of Infinera's competitors says Google may have told Infinera at one point that it wanted to build a long-haul network but was never very serious about it.
Infinera's announced customers include Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT - message board), Global Crossing Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: GLBC - message board), XO Communications Inc. (OTC: XOCM - message board), and OnFiber Communications Inc. . (See XO Selects Infinera, and Global Crossing Picks Infinera.)
ADVA, another potential Google WDM vendor, did not return calls for comment.
Canarie Inc. senior director of advanced networks Bill St. Arnaud is not surprised that Google has cancelled its plans. "It's really a business decision based on expected growth in traffic. For some routes it makes sense to buy the fiber and light it yourself if you expect to have terabytes and petabytes of traffic; for other routes it makes more sense to lease," Arnaud says.
Arnaud says Google is backing away from becoming a network operator because traffic levels aren't growing as fast as it once expected.
"They bought the fiber, as I understand it. I suspect the reason why they are going to managed services is because of the bottleneck in the last mile," Arnaud says. "Network neutrality has failed to pass through Congress. They realize that reaching their end customer is going to be a challenge, so they are probably not going to have the traffic growth volumes they had hoped for because of the bottleneck caused by the incumbents."
-- Mark Sullivan, Reporter, Light Reading
My bold in the last paragraph. Did you see"Global Crossing" mentioned ? I suggest you read this from the sources site so you can link to the other articles mentioned.
Japbrat <@> Very good DD.
Keep up the good digging.
re: Tech theft, Patents & percieved intelectual property.
Do any of you remember Kestrel Aerospace ? Here is what you get when you go to there site:http://www.kestrelaerospace.com/
Due to the theft of equipment, funds and misrepresentation by a so called "investor", Kestrel Aerospace Ltd is being forced to close its doors for the near future.
We would like to thank all our friends, suppliers and customers for the support they have shown us over the past three years and hope to return with new designs and more advanced technologies soon.
If you have any questions or require updates on the future of the designs, please contact us
In light of what GTE has been through this year all you investors should thank management that you don't get the same message @ the GTE website.
Lock/Mart gets $10 million & change to make antenna outta airship. GTE can't get PV's to stay on rejected carbon fiber frame? Who is Raytheon working with ? Now that the show is over can we get back to business.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transformation/articles/2006-06/ta062206a.html
Contract to Develop Autonomous Unmanned Sensor
A two-year contract funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
will support of its "Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS)" program.
By Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
ROME, N.Y., June 22, 2006 - The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $10,251,024 contract to Lockheed Martin Corp., Maritime Systems and Sensors, of Akron, Ohio.
The two-year contract is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of Arlington, Va., in support of its "Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS)" program.
"Under this contract, Lockheed Martin will perform preliminary design and analysis, development, production and validation testing of an advanced airship hull material."
Jeffery L. Mack, program manager
ISIS envisions a stratospheric airship operating as a surveillance platform more than 70,000 feet above the Earth.
This is the second contract awarded to Lockheed Martin for portions of the ISIS research.
Two contracts were earlier awarded to divisions of Northrop Grumman Corp. and one was signed with Raytheon Systems Company of El Segundo, Calif.
The combined value of the five awards is in excess of $42.5 million.
The goal of the ISIS program is to develop a stratospheric airship-based autonomous unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets.
It will have the capability to track the most advanced cruise missiles at a distance in excess of 370 miles and dismounted enemy combatants on the ground nearly 200 miles away.
Achieving this goal will require the development of technologies that enable extremely large, lightweight phased-array radar antennas to be integrated into an airship platform.
Major technical challenges are the development of ultra-lightweight antennas, antenna calibration technologies, power systems, station keeping approaches, and airships that support extremely large antennas.
"Under this contract, Lockheed Martin will perform preliminary design and analysis, development, production and validation testing of an advanced airship hull material," said Jeffery L. Mack, program manager in the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate.
"The effort also includes developing the process to adhere both solar panels and radar arrays to the materials," he explained. "Thirty hull material samples will be delivered to other ISIS contractors."
"We are investigating four of the critical ISIS technologies here at Rome," said Mack, citing active electronically scanned arrays, lightweight/low power transmit/receive modules and prime power for near-space environments, in addition to advanced hull material.
"The vision for this stratospheric platform is an array of sensors to create a radar nearly as large as the airship itself," he emphasized.
Who is ahead in this development game ? Didn't we see pictures of SkyCat flying over EAFB earlier this year ? Sorry to ? ^I would truly like to see Sanswire beat L/M to the stratosphere.^
PNizzle, Why take the punch outta the presentation. Anxious loose lips & PR's have almost sunk this ship in the past.
You & nilrem have made this board a more interesting place recently. Keep Up^ the good work & DD.
sighting 60404 re:(SVC)Stored Value Cards
Prepaid cards
Plastic promise
May 4th 2006 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
Stored-value cards take off
FOR the millions of Americans without bank accounts, prepaid cards--also called stored-value cards--could be the next-best thing. Prepaid cards can be loaded with money and used as a debit card, but without a bank account. While credit-card growth has stagnated in recent years, the prepaid market is booming. The PELORUS Group, a research firm, reckons that the dollar volume of prepaid cards, $126 billion last year, will top $470 billion by 2010 (see chart).
Prepaid cards are of two types. Single-use cards, such as telephone cards or Gap gift cards, can be used only with the issuer. More relevant for the unbanked are multi-purpose cards, which can be used almost anywhere that accepts a credit card. These increasingly offer the services that used to come only with a bank account. They can be used to store electronic deposits from employers or the government, withdraw cash from machines, transfer funds and pay bills.
NetSpend, one of the fastest-growing prepaid-card marketers and processors, has even added a feature that lets customers funnel money into an interest-bearing "savings" account. NetSpend boasts that it distributes its cards in more than 10,000 convenience stores, petrol stations and so forth--a bigger network of "branches" than any bank. And convenience stores are open 24 hours a day and are to be found in even the most impoverished district.
Enthusiasts think all this is just the beginning. They hope that, soon, prepaid cards can contain credit-like features, such as overdraft protection or loan advances on direct-deposited salaries. This could help unbanked customers build credit histories, opening the way to loans and other financial products. Indeed, credit-scoring firms are experimenting with using the records generated by people's prepaid cards.
Others are more sceptical. Many prepaid cards have opaque fee structures that make them pricier than simple bank accounts. Fees can include not just upfront "activation" charges but also levies for reloading funds and monthly "maintenance". Regulation is still hazy. Some cards do not enjoy the federal deposit insurance that most bank accounts do. Others do not protect cardholders' money if cards are stolen--something of a drawback in rough areas.
For those of you who subscribe to the Economist there is good article explaining the "unbanked" and the market for prepaid debit cards, kiosks and the "underbanked". This is the market GTE is going to service. They already do @ Centerline. These 2 articles confirm the GTE target market. I will DD NetSpend next.
Another UAV bites the dust.
http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_aerospacedaily_story.jsp?id=news/DRAG04216.xml
Second X-50A Dragonfly Demonstrator Lost In Crash; Program In Doubt
By Jefferson Morris/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
04/21/2006 09:46:10 AM
The second X-50A Dragonfly demonstrator was destroyed in a crash at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona last week, leaving Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pondering whether the envelope-pushing program can continue.
The mishap occurred at 7:46 a.m. Mountain time April 12. There were no injuries or property damage and the cause of the crash is not yet known, Boeing told The DAILY. An accident investigation is under way.
The Dragonfly was an unmanned experimental helicopter featuring an unusually wide rotor designed to stop in flight and act as a wing, a concept known as Canard Rotor/Wing. The first X-50A prototype also was lost in a crash in March 2004 (DAILY, March 31, 2004).
"The Boeing Company and DARPA officials are in discussions regarding the future of the Dragonfly program and Canard Rotor/Wing," the company said. The program has no aircraft remaining.
Like a tiltrotor, the Dragonfly was intended to combine the operational flexibility of a rotorcraft with the speed of a fixed-wing aircraft. With the rotor stopped, lift was generated by the stopped rotor/wing, the airframe itself and canards mounted on the nose. The program had hoped to conduct its first mid-air conversion flights this year.
Boeing was developing the Dragonfly for DARPA under a $51.8 million contract. The first flights of the aircraft in late 2003 were delayed more than a year while engineers grappled with the formidable control challenges arising from the aircraft's unique design.
The program performed two brief hover tests before the March 2004 crash. After a lengthy investigation, that mishap was linked to a cross-coupling control phenomenon intrinsic to the aircraft's design. That problem was believed solved by modifications to flight software. The program finally resumed flight-testing in December 2005 using its only spare, a ground model that was modified for flight at Boeing's facility in Mesa, Ariz.
Following a 30-second "pop-up" flight in early November to build confidence, the second X-50A completed a four-minute hover flight on Dec. 2, 2005 at Yuma in which it reached an altitude of 15 feet (DAILY, Dec. 27, 2005). In subsequent flights prior to the crash the aircraft progressed as far as "slow forward flight," Boeing said.
The team had hoped to conduct two conversion flights at 120 knots airspeed later this year, during which the X-50A would have stopped its rotor while airborne. This would have been preceded by low-speed forward flights below 60 knots and "compound mode" flights between 60-120 knots in which the rotor would have been slowed somewhat but not stopped.
Mike,Thanks for the correction.
Considering that the sun does set in the west the photos were taken from a position east of Palmdale. I forgot to check the date. It might have been the P-791 they saw.
Victorville is about 40 miles west of Palmdale.
sighting 60419
Sanswire the movie? Sky Pirates?
Last paragraph of this article mentions Sanswire rental @ Site9.
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/0420pirates0420.html
"Part of Site 9 is being rented out to Sanswire Networks LLC, which is building a high-tech airship. That company is paying $185,000 in rent through September. There is a possibility the company will extend its stay in Palmdale and pay an additional $84,000 in rent through December, according to LAWA."
swami & justme
Good find. Here is a link to an interesting powerpoint presentation from Francois Anderson.
http://esl.ee.sun.ac.za/workshops/2ndawms_present/Session2/DefTek%20HAA%20for%20WARTMS%20-%20F%20And...
labrador,
I can't get at the article from link provided.
Could you post a copy here ?
Esyn, Your link is pre GTE & one I had not seen. Thanks!
But comments like the one below from Molen are one reason there is so much anticipation about the STRAT. I for one was glad to see him go. We are still waiting for those "checks in air" to land in GTE's bank. It was this time last year that we found out what little Sanswire had to offer when we were crudely surprised by the majic act Huff & Jones pulled off to save face with Sanswire One. I now know Molen was talking about the wrong market @ the wrong price.
"We think this system can provide broadband to the continental U.S. for about $100 million. People have been coming from all over the world waving checks in the air at us."
merlin & maid,
Nice find. A quick scan on VistaScape shows an extensive track record @ various US ports. Their network centric "SiteIQ Automated Wide-Area Surveillance" seems very similar to the software mentioned @ Delta Aero Science JMO.
Also this coincidence:> P.J. Lynch President and COO
Lynch is responsible for the leadership and day to day operations at VistaScape Security Systems.
Prior to joining VistaScape, Lynch was Vice President, Software and Professional Services Enterprise for the Retail Systems Division at NCR Corporation. In this role, Lynch had P&L responsibility for NCR's $175M worldwide solution portfolio.
Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Corporate and Business Development for ADS Financial Services Solutions, a Boston-based IT consulting firm and long-term portfolio investment of General Atlantic Partners LLC. Prior to ADS, Lynch. held a number of management positions with both GTE(I assume this was the original GTE) and Global TeleSystems Group, providing telecommunications in Europe and emerging markets including Russia, the Czech Republic, and the Principality of Monaco. Lynch also served as a U.S. Air Force officer for nearly ten years developing and fielding sophisticated fighter aircraft and air-to-air missiles.
Lynch is a Distinguished Graduate from the United States Air Force Academy (BS Engineering Sciences), a Hertz Fellow from MIT (MS Aeronautics and Astronautics) and a Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (MBA).
I wonder if he is any relation to our Larry Lynch ?
sighting 60406
Looks like the DoD has yanked the plug on the WALRUS project. The "SkyCat" prototype that was seen flight testing @ AFB was L/M's bid for this contract.The PR spread in PopSci a few months back was the vision WorldwideAeros had for Walrus.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2006/04/walrus-hunted-to-extinction-by-congress-darpa/index.php
sighting 60329
This article clearly spells out the DoD's budget for UAVs
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20060328-0015-theunmannedwar.html
sighing 60326 @
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/14164382.htm
This article will give all a glimpse @ how $erious the Air Force is about UAV/ROA's. To bad Sanswire/DAS/SkyDragon did not make an appearance @ this meet-up.
Even though Maj. Gen. Kennedy is talking about fixed wing Predator UAVs his comments are a military signpost to the future.
I'll bet you a squadron of SkyDragons would cost alot less to operate! But then again SkyDragons are not a proven weapons platform.
GFAFB: Planning an unmanned aerial future
Summit gathers UAV movers and shakers
.....Air Force Maj. Gen. Kevin Kennedy said Grand Forks' UAVs would probably be structured as squadrons of eight, requiring 379 personnel each and costing $37.2 million a year to operate. He displayed a map to the audience that showed Air Force plans for UAV bases in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and North Dakota, among others.
Dorgan and the rest of the state's congressional delegation appears to be following the logic that the more UAVs the military gets, the more it will have to allocate to Grand Forks. The senator said the president's fiscal year 2007 budget calls for purchasing three times as many Predators as before to feed the military's insatiable appetite, a move he supports.
"Demand will always exceed supply," Kennedy said of the need for UAVs.
But the opportunities are not limited to the military realm.
Smith said he believes that in 10 to 15 years, unmanned aircraft will be the "overwhelming choice" for nonpassenger aviation. Part of UND's UAV program, he said, is to figure out how to integrate unmanned aircraft with existing commercial aviation traffic; the two do not mix today.
Ditto on both counts !
Sky Eyes can see much further than pole mounted ones.
Link to RosAeroSystems Au12 specs
http://rosaerosystems.pbo.ru/english/products/au_12.html
Considering GTE's pending rollout in Russia & their history of partnering with other airship developers this company & its capabilities could secure the SuperHub Trifecta in Russian airspace.
Sighting Z60305
Airship swoop on Moscow criminals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/05/wzep05.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/...
This is good news for future STRAT flights. If Moscow authorities are open to airships in their airspace it will be much easier for Nutel/GTE to get permission to float STRATs @ 65,000'. Not to mention the fact that an existing WiMax network will help the police do their job better from above. I have commented here before on the increased popularity of Municiple Wireless Networks. This is just another market GTE can service in a big way. Link to the manufacturer of the Au12 to follow.
Thanks for that great link !