Paint-on Antennas for Mile-High Airships

Bravoc writes to tell us RTI International is reporting that a group of researchers are testing a "paint-on antenna" for high-altitude airships. From the article: "'The successful airship test flights demonstrate exciting possibilities for "paint-on" antenna technologies,' said David Myers, vice president of RTI's Engineering and Technology Unit. 'This new technology can be used to assist with hurricane disaster relief, provide enhanced security of ports and borders, perform science observation missions and improve military communications.'"

Comments

New?

[Who235]

Don't they have Circuit Writer pens at Radio Shack?

Re:Cars have had these for ages

[monsted]

AFAIK, that's done with inlaid wires, not paint.

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[nevets429]

As a former alarm installer I can tell you that was foil, not paint. You don't see it anymore because it was hard to apply properly (more art than skill) and was prone to problems from things rubbing against it (blinds/drapes) or extreme sun cracking it. Motion detectors and glass break detectors spelled it's final demise.

Conducive Paint

[darcling]

There are already electrically conducive paints available, what else is needed? Possibly higher quality... but still, the technology appears readily available.

Here's an article (referenced on Slashdot long ago) where it is used:
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=13#video

Re:That's one really tall airship!

[Heavyporker]

*groans* I simply couldn't ignore this. 'High' refers to altitude in this instance. You are misusing the term. Airships are 'x' units *tall*, not *high*, when you speak about the size of the object. 'Mile high' airships is a perfectly valid term.

Winds aloft.

[Anonymous Coward]

An airship is awfully difficult to hold a position when there are significant winds aloft... which there are more times that it's windy than when it is calm up there in the sky.

Also, while takeoffs are optional.... landings are always mandatory in any type of aircraft. Using a ballon, blimp or rigid LTA airship as a communications relay system can only be a very temporary solution at best, and a fairly expensive one at that.

Re:Airship?

[Dred_furst]

What is this? Final Fantasy? Just a thought...

Seems more like Dr Who

Yagi

[Rob Carr]

If you think about a Yagi, the signal it received would be in the same plane as the roof. You'd get a tremendous amount of problems with that, given the nails as well as the effect of the material. That's the other reason why people spend so much money building towers -- not only are they trying to get altitude, but they're trying to get away from the ground, which distorts the antenna field.

If you need to have a stealth antenna, you might be willing to put up with it. Otherwise, it's not that good.