LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- The next generation of high-altitude airships may be arriving sooner than the boffins predicted, and all due to the wonders of -- paint?
Yes, researchers at RTI International, based in North Carolina, have developed "paint-on" antennas for airships they say will further advances in both communications and surveillance technologies.
The announcement comes from RTI after the antenna performed successfully during testing in June. SA-60 spherical airships painted with the antenna successfully managed to transmit voice and data links, and teleconferencing capabilities during their test flights across the Nevada desert. The test flights provided the first opportunity to test and evaluate the electrical, electromagnetic and mechanical properties of the antenna during actual flight conditions, and the antennae themselves were tested from several positions on the airships.
"Paint-on" technologies are, in themselves, nothing wildly new, and electrically conductive paints are already widely available. Cars frequently come with paint-on antennas, which can also be etched onto printed circuit-boards. Similar systems were used with foil in security system, which, when "painted" along window frames and connected to security boxes -- if the connection via the foil-stripe broke, the alarm sounded. Amateur radio operators have also used metallic paints and circuit writers to create fractal antennas for many years. Unlike these solutions however, the paint developed by RTI and their partners, Applied EM, Unitech and TechSphere Systems, is water-soluble, making it easier and cheaper to apply and dispose of that its enamel-based counterparts.
The antennas were developed through work between RTI and its research partners including Unitech, Applied EM, the International Communications Group and TechSphere Systems International. Applied EM and Unitech are developing similar technology under the Air Force Small Business Innovative Research Program, with Applied EM specializing in antenna design and electromagnetic stimulation, and Unitech focusing on patented water-based conductive coatings. RTI's long-standing government and defense links also came into play as NASA was co-opted into installing a GPS Reflectance Remote Sensing Experiment to conduct soil moisture measurements during the flight. Accurate soil moisture maps can be used to provide information for agricultural efficiency, water management and disaster planning.
As might be expected from the heritage and funding of the research, many of the potential applications of the antenna are likely to be military. David Myers, vice president of RTI's Engineering and Technology Unit, described how high-altitude airships kitted out with the antenna could be used for both defense and homeland-security purposes, including enhanced security of domestic ports and borders, and improve military communications. The antennae would act as a key enabling technology to achieve the high altitudes necessary for these Department of Defense and Homeland Security persistent surveillance missions of coastal waters, land borders and urban areas. As such, the airships augment both ground-based and satellite systems, operating well above standard commercial air traffic and the jet stream, yet below the range of most ground-to-air missiles.
Beyond surveillance, the researchers are also hopeful that the antenna will contribute to more peaceful, altruistic measures of governance that make use of the communications potentials of the technology. Myers also described how antenna-equipped airships could provide vital information to assist with hurricane disaster relief efforts and science observation missions. Industry observers have also already been speculating about the high-altitude WiFi potentials of the technology as an improvement over the currently shaky satellite alternative and constraints of weather conditions.
