Air Ball

START Good-bye, Goodyear. Hokan Colting is taking blimps to a whole new level – 12 miles up, higher than any zeppelins of the past. His Canadian company, 21st Century Airships, builds high-flying dirigibles that will one day scale to the size of a football field. Colting designed the ships in part to route cell phone […]

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Good-bye, Goodyear. Hokan Colting is taking blimps to a whole new level - 12 miles up, higher than any zeppelins of the past. His Canadian company, 21st Century Airships, builds high-flying dirigibles that will one day scale to the size of a football field. Colting designed the ships in part to route cell phone chatter and other wireless data above temperamental weather, replacing the need for costly towers and satellites. With an almost limitless supply of cheap fuel - the sun - the blimps could eventually stay airborne for years. This $2 million manned prototype, which measures 60 feet in diameter, can fly at 18,000 feet. By year's end, Colting plans to reach 35,000 feet. Interest has been intense: The US is considering the spheres for military surveillance and environmental monitoring, while telcos might use them to set up impromptu networks around the world.

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