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US company tests broadband airplane
Wednesday, July 24 2002
by Matthew Clark


By 2005, people might be receiving mobile phone services, broadband connections
and even digital TV from solar-powered airplanes that fly at 65,000 feet. 

This week, US company SkyTower, a subsidiary of AeroVironment, said it had
successfully performed a series of tests in Hawaii of its new technology, a
communications airplane called Pathfinder-Plus. 



Working with NASA and the Japanese Ministry of Telecommunications, SkyTower said
it had launched the plane, which climbed to 65,000 feet above Kauai, Hawaii, and
transmitted several hours of 3G mobile voice, data and video service to the
ground, where it was received on an NTT DoCoMo 3G handset. Data was transmitted
at 384 kbps during the test.  



Pathfinder-Plus, with its 121-foot wingspan, is no ordinary airplane. The vehicle
is unmanned and runs on solar power, which means it needs to land at night. But
the company claims that advances in battery technology could give the airplane
the ability to stay airborne 24 hours a day, allowing it to fly for six months at
a time. The airplane also has a tight turning radius, which in conjunction with
low-cost, stationary user antennas, makes the plane appears geostationary from
the ground. 



"The airborne platform, operating above the weather and commercial air traffic,
is equivalent to a 12-mile-tall tower, which means significant advantages to
telecom service providers and broadcasters," said Stuart Hindle, vice president
of strategy and business development, SkyTower. 



Indeed telecoms in Europe and elsewhere have spent billions rolling out 2.5G and
3G platforms over the last few years, but SkyTower claims it could dramatically
cut those costs. "Given the amount of money that wireless service providers
have spent on spectrum licences for both fixed and mobile applications, these
SkyTower tests should be of great interest," Hindle said. "Imagine launching a
single platform, having instant metropolitan-wide market coverage, and
eliminating the terrestrial costs associated with tower build-outs and
backhaul."



During the test flight, the company also successfully tested digital high
definition television broadcasts from its stratospheric transmitter. And the
company pointed out that because of its much higher "look angle," SkyTower
platforms can fill in "urban canyons," or areas currently missed by
terrestrial and satellite broadcast transmissions due to tall buildings or
terrain. 



Furthermore, during the tests, a 24 mbps data rate was achieved using only 1 watt
of power -- less than 1/10,000 the power used by a typical terrestrial broadcast
transmitter that has to overcome buildings, trees and other obstructions to cover
the same area.



With funding from the Japanese Ministry of Telecommunications, a consortium of
Japanese manufacturers including NEC and Toshiba developed the communication
systems carried by Pathfinder-Plus for the HDTV and IMT-2000 testing. Fuji Heavy
Industries integrated the payloads for the company's flights.



Interestingly, telecoms are probably not the only ones who would be attracted to
SkyTower's product. "In addition to commercial interest in SkyTower's
telecommunication infrastructure, there is strong and growing government interest
in AeroVironment's UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), especially given the current
defence needs," said Tim Conver, AeroVironment's chief executive. "Government
interest ranges from broadband battlefield communications to emergency backup
telecom services."



In September, NASA will be sponsoring an agricultural remote sensing mission,
using the Pathfinder Plus aircraft equipped with multi-spectral imaging equipment
to conduct several studies, including demonstrating how crop yields could be
optimised by identifying factors such as the optimal time to harvest, required
changes in irrigation levels and outbreak of crop disease.



The company claims that it could launch the airplane on a commercial basis by
2005 but did not say which companies it is working with.