Broadband data services from a HALO aircraft

Abstract

Scaled Composites Incorporated, a partner of Angel Technologies Corporation, has built a high altitude long operation (HALO) airplane specially engineered for providing a wireless communications networks. The HALO aircraft has a fixed-wing airframe with twin turbofan propulsion. It will be FAA certified for piloted operation. Its high altitude flight regime was pioneered in the 1950s and its components will benefit from decades of aerospace industry experience and innovation. The HALO network will serve tens of thousands of subscribers within a super-metropolitan region, by offering ubiquitous access throughout the network's signal "footprint". The HALO aircraft will carry the "hub" of a wireless network having a star topology. The initial HALO network is expected to provide a raw bit capacity exceeding 16 Gbps, which by utilizing packet-switching could, for example, serve 50,000 to 100,000 subscribers requiring links with DS1-equivalent peak data rates in both directions. Three HALO aircraft will fly in shifts to provide continuous service, 24 hour per day by 7 days per week with an overall system reliability of 99.9% or greater. The HALO airplane will fly above commercial airline traffic and adverse weather at altitudes higher than 51,000 and will provide a communications service footprint or "Cone of Commerce" of approximately 120 kilometers in diameter. Any subscriber within that region will be able to access the HALO network's ubiquitous multi-gigabit per second "bit cloud" upon demand.