Henry Ford -- Need rubber for tires? Buy the land and grow it. Ford had limited sucess with his first plantation. Crop disease. I believe the 2nd attempt is still producing.
Besides insuring a source of technology and keeping pastcontactors loyal, this bringing in house people who have become intimate with the project and so limits the "spread of technology". GTE has to provide a "turnkey" system to avoid an advanced technical competitor from sending a kludge system overhead. I seem to recall there are militiary applications, so it's not a scenario that can be counted out. There is no real guarantee that Japan or China or the Philiphines cannot create an airship. They can hire any help they need. The trick is to get there first-est with the most-est.
Economy of scale is the winner for players in this game, I predict. The hazardous environment with temperatures that alter the characteristics of most common materials, acts of God and just plain problems with finding out about failure modes first will reguire GTE to be producing airships on an assembly line basis just to cover failures. NASA has tried to run a shuttle program with 4 shuttles. We are down two and they are still on a learning curve. ("foam can't do that!".) Because of that shortsightedness, "all eggs in one basket" we are looking at losing the Hubble Scope and possibly the International Space Station. Being supplied currently by good ole' 1960's Soviet tech!
Once you sell the service, you have to deliver. Most of us are despondent when our internet is lost. WE go whacky when we lose TV too. How happy will users be if the GTE stratbird is no longer providing all those links and services? How quickly will they demand blood if it is not restored "in a timely fashion?" What do you think is a timely fashion? We are used to occasional hours of service loss. Not Days or (perish the thought) weeks or months! GTE cannot afford delays in getting materials ot technology. Acquisitions aimed at preventing this are sound business sense.
Stakddek
