JETSON-LIKE COMMUNICATIONS AIRCRAFT

[Tony Barry]

>From Edupage, 24 September 1998

JETSON-LIKE COMMUNICATIONS AIRCRAFT
A new aircraft called High Altitude Long Operation-Proteus is designed to
circle for hours some 50,000 feet high over major cities, functioning like a
communications relay satellite does in space and carrying broadband wireless
services, including high-speed Internet access and video-teleconferencing.
A region might receive 24-hour service from a fleet of three planes, each
flown by two-man crews on eight-hour shifts, with each aircraft flying fixed
patterns providing coverage to an area 75 miles in diameter.  Industry
analyst Jeffrey Kagan says, "I knew it wouldn't be too long before the
Jetsons became reality.  In the next several years, you will see truckloads
of methods for delivering high speed methods of data to homes and offices."
(San Jose Mercury News 23 Sep 98)

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