Rocky/Kevin,
Nothing in particular. Bad wording on my part. Only intuition and speculation based on PR reading.
It would make sense that these prototypes could be alot smaller then the commercial version and therefore not necessary to go 13miles up to be successful and useful.
This may explain why nobody in and around Palmdale saw anything in the sky. But yes, purely speculative on my part.
Sorry to ruffle anybody's feathers...
Sanswire Networks LLC, has successfully completed its planned demonstration flight of its military prototype airship. The flight consisted of two military prototypes of varied size, both of which were flown for the benefit of a number of approved senior military and national security officials. The flights took place at the Sanswire facility in Palmdale, California, on Nov. 15, 2005.
"Working closely with our DoD customers to meet critical military and government needs is a key growth strategy for Sanswire", said Bob Jones, President of Sanswire LLC. Mr. Jones further commented that "Our aggressive approach to resource gathering and rapid internal cross-pollination has enabled us to assemble, and will allow us to deliver, this unique military prototype to these highly valued customers in record time. Sanswire's uniquely integrated approach to definition, design and development has given Sanswire a great competitive advantage in the race to deliver a highly functional military airship system, which will meet or exceed the stringent demands of the Department of Defense. In this regard, Sanswire is uniquely positioned, as a leader in the design, development and deployment of near space vehicles. This classified demonstration will further reinforce the competitive advantages of our technology and our delivery systems and shows our commitment toward providing the United States Government with its product significantly ahead of any other competitor."
Timothy Huff, Chief Executive Officer of GlobeTel commented "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to demonstrate and fly our military airship prototype during the next few weeks. Sanswire and the military design team have repeatedly proven themselves to be highly adept at meeting the complex operational requirements of Sanswire's military customers." Because of the military nature of the system, this event is not open to the public, and we will not be able to update the public on certain aspects of the airship program.
Bob Jones, president of Sanswire Networks LLC., further commented, "We are very pleased with the relationships that we have developed in the building of our Stratellite program. These relationships and the technology gained as a result from them have allowed the Company to utilize new and cutting edge technology, increase production capacity, increase overall performance and continue our accelerated commercialization of the high altitude airship program." Mr. Jones went on to say, "This demonstration in no way defers our progress on our commercial airship, Sanswire III. Sanswire II, our technology demonstrator, is under construction at our Palmdale facility in California and we are working aggressively to complete Sanswire II, pending the delivery of the Guidance, Navigation and Control Computer System (CCS) and the Safety Control System (SCS)."
