Comments on: Big Bucks for Giant Blimp

By: Mahir

Mahir — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:46:49 +0000

Greeting. Late to bed and late to wake will keep you long on money and short on mistakes.
I am from Nicaragua and learning to write in English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: “Buy stock picks, the tastes of a chartered cash can not be poised with a dividend to throw people.“
With best wishes , Mahir.

By: Troy Thomes

Troy Thomes — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:12:27 +0000

Sanswire’s Stratellite is a high-altitude airship that when in place in the stratosphere will provide a stationary platform for transmitting various types of wireless communications services currently transmitted from cell towers and satellites. It is not a balloon or a blimp. It is a high-altitude airship.
Made of Space age Materials and powered by solar powered electrical engines, each Stratellite will reach its final altitude by utilizing proprietary lifting gas technology. Once in place at 65,000 feet (approx. 13 miles) and safely above the jet stream, each Stratellite will remain in one GPS coordinate, providing the ideal wireless transmission platform. The Stratellites are unmanned airships and will be monitored from the Company’s Operation Centers on the ground.
A Stratellite will have a payload capacity of several thousand pounds and clear line-of-sight to approximately 300,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas .

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:53:49 +0000

I’m going to lean on the side of probability with this one. How probable is it that we have balistic missiles shot at us? Not very likely. Now how high of a probability is it that our enemies have the technology to produce balistic missiles that are able to fly under our current radar systems and strike at the vitals of our country? Extremely unlikely. I’m in a Marine Corps ARFF Plt (aircraft rescue and fire fighting), and our first line of defense is our flight suits because they are fire retardant. Riddle me this: Now why is it that even though flight suits are supposed to be standard issue, we don’t have them, but the DoD is looking at spending millions on things that are not pertinent?
Let’s spend money where it counts. Maybe in a time of peace it would be different, and we can spend money on b.s. stuff that is whimsical, but we have iraq, afghanistan, and soon to be iran syria or korea.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:58:28 +0000

Seems like old news as Sanswire has been in development on the Stratellite for over 2 years and the award went to Locheed. Seems like a copy infringement as it incorporates the same technology.Research Globetel symbol GTE on the American Exchange…

By: David Bolton

David Bolton — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 21:12:50 +0000

Rod’s comments prove that the right to bear children should be restricted.

By: Slats Wolfe

Slats Wolfe — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 18:54:49 +0000

I actually served in a unit that had blimps from 1958–1960, The Naval Air Development Unit (NADU). While there the unit managed to deflate two blimps in accidents. One when a gust of wind caught it as it was being towed out of the hangar. It was slammed against the hangar door and deflated. The other was parked outside on the ramp so that an inspection of the troops could be made. It snowed rather heavily and before the inspection could be cancelled and the blimp moved inside, the weight of the snow cause it to deflate. These were very late model state of the art blimps at the time. About 1962 the last active blimp was folded away. These were billed as all-weather airships. Unless there are great strides made over what was used at that time, this is a waste. At that time they were being used for early warning purposes.

By: DAN

DAN — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:39:11 +0000

And how much money has been spent on so col at Wright Patterson dream? Maybe he will make General. One well placed SAM/SLM/SRAM/ETC, billions up in, sorry, down in somke

By: Robert Galloway

Robert Galloway — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:52:43 +0000

Amazing the vitriol of some of the comments. The government has bought in on some pie in the sky schemes over the years. They’ve backed some ambitions notions that didn’t pan out. Plenty did. We don’t still fight from trenches with muzzle loaders. We don’t get to the battle on foot or horseback. Give the brass some credit that this scheme may well have merit. Putting a man on the moon was absurd to some. Enough money and brainpower brought it about.

By: Rod

Rod — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:44:09 +0000

This has got to Win the Dumb-Award-Of the Year What I want to know is
1. Why does the person in the Defense Department that came-up with this Idea
Giant Blimps WHY does he Still have a Job working for the Defense Department??
2. Also, why is the person that spend our TAX-MONEY on this Idea of a Giant-Blimps NOT in Jail for Government Waste !

By: Jim Morris

Jim Morris — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:07:08 +0000

I think the ‘eye in the sky’ concept has merit but, in absence of any data, empirical or otherwise, about the vulnerability of such a craft, it’s impossible to evaluate its potential value. Such questions as a. will it be armed and b. will it be able to protect itself against attack were the first of many to come to mind.