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"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
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How could you provide line-of-sight communication without having to put satellite facilities into orbit?
The story also calls it a "television plane."
A considerable amount of research is going into the idea of aircraft that could circle slowly (and indefinitely) at high altitude, providing line-of-sight communication services like cell phones, or for surveillance purposes.
The remarkable Helios aircraft created by NASA is shown below; solar-powered and remotely piloted, it succeeded in reaching a maximum altitude of 97,000 feet.
![]() (NASA Helios aircraft) In the picture shown above, Helios is at 10,000 feet northwest of Kauai, Hawaii in August 2001. It is poking along at just 25 miles per hour. Helios is an ultralight flying wing with 14 electric motors, built by AeroVironment Inc. Helios' 247 foot wide wing is covered with solar cells. Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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