Sebass, like your listed chronology, and have one also.
This one begins though in an unaffirmed place (company acknowledged) back in 2004. While recorded in a couple of articles, these 1st prototypes we are now speaking of, did not receive full media coverage or press release coverage, but do speak to me as truth and will offer it up to the board as opinion +.
DATE:July 2004
Official testing of Platform (non-strat) hauled up by jet helicopter to show practical application of telecom transmition with the benefits of altitude. Company PR and various articles covered this event and stated such.
A few articles (one is given below) had a different take on the testing. They talked with Sanswire Networks and reported that the testing process would involve "small stratellites" forming a communicative "mesh" over Atlanta.
By Ben Charny CNET News.com July 7, 2004, 3:20 PM PT
A company aiming to bring broadband to the masses via tiny airships next week plans to dot Atlanta's skies with a flotilla of low-orbiting "stratellites."
According to Sanswire Networks, fixed wireless equipment on land will send a signal to antennae in stratellites floating high over the city, then to designated areas on the ground. The stratellites are similar to satellites in concept, but they are stationed in the stratosphere like unmanned airships rather than being put in orbit. The company plans to demonstrate applications using IP-based voice and video over the stratellite connection.
A broadband network based on tiny airships isn't as farfetched as it seems. A commercial balloon-based IP network, owned by Space Data, began operating in April. Its network is used to monitor gas and oil field employees in a 400-mile area of the Permian Basin region in the western part of Texas.
Attention on nontraditional ways of getting broadband has increased now that President Bush and opponent John Kerry are focusing their campaigns on improving on the relatively few broadband-connected homes and offices in the United States. Many of the underserved areas are too expensive to reach by telephone or cable network, the dominant way broadband is doled out.
Stratellites can be positioned much lower in the sky than balloon-based IP networks. That makes it faster to send photos, e-mails or other forms of uploading onto the Internet. Uploads are something that higher-orbiting balloons have problems with.
But there's a price to pay for the low-altitude high speeds. The airships are buffeted about in jet streams, and their covers wear down after about 18 months. Satellites, on the other hand, can last decades.
Sanswire Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miami-based GlobeTel Communications. end ---------------------------------------------------------
When considering the validity of these small (obviously FAA exempt because of their size) Strat's, please bear in mind the nature of their inventor, Vern Koenig.
He is a modeler at heart -that is scratch construction of flight-able miniature aircraft. This would involve personal research, layout, and material acquisition and assembly. His posts on a modeler board at Yahoo offer, i believe, some tangible evidence of this (obviously taking the man at his word).
His proprietary work on high-altitude rigid airships appears revolutionary, and given the nature of the inventor, presupposes small prototypes, not only for design validation but also for real-world testing of autonomous stationary programing. In short, the first strats were small beasts, like a modeler would build (imho).
I hate to build on this but, the January (2005) presentation to NASA, DOD, USAF, etc., and further orders we are now seeing for Strats from Columbia and Peru bear some witness to compelling evidence on the part of Globetel/Sanswire when it came time to sit down with interested parties.
The S1 tethered tests may well have provided all that was necessary for the buyers of strats, and these small proto's either never existed or perhaps will be revealed at another time. We leave it at that.
S-1b prototype (after the miniature flight able models) began construction with Vern & company (pre-NASA) and was to attain 90ft in length, and involved darcon & aluminum rather than Tedlar and carbon parts. How far this team got, am not sure, personally view this version as the first (though uncompleted) large-sized Stratellite.
S-1c The coming aboard of NASA folks radically changed the dimensions/materials/ and perhaps even Vern's vision/self on project. Personally view it as a new beast, but Bob J. did say they "added" on to the length almost 100ft (or more than doubling the orginal length).
S-2 First flyable version (which AV Press article describes)
My hunch, for what it's worth, is Strat will follow project pattern to construct to maximum facility length. 400 ft. is my guess at S-2 length. Also, with this length, believe this vehicle will allow the company to skip the production-grade full sized test version.
Notice the wording in AV article " a third vehicle is expected to follow". Am thinking that the NASA program stuff is going to help make this immediate jump to full-sized version happen. 360K money for NASA simulator might also play into skipping a step....we'll see of course.
Also, this move by Tim would help recover some of lost time resulting from FAA clearance delays & and makes sense for at least three reasons:
1)flight able to 65,000ft (smaller Strat under 400ft would not be).
2)full sized component comparision tests
3) FAA flight certification tests for remote pilots would certainly be valid if using an actual full-sized Strat.
Anyway, am really off on a tangent here, sorry....typical sign for a NAP! lol.
Again liked the list Sebass and thanks for the post! pete
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