Blimps are much cooler than drones, don’t you think? Of course you do.
So let’s celebrate the fact that an MIT-connected startup called Altaeros Energies is building a blimp hangar in Fremont, N.H. – halfway between Manchester and the Seacoast – to do R&D on their plan to use blimps as cheap cell towers in rural areas. The Union-Leader broke the story (right here).
That this is different than the balloons-bouncing-Internet project from Google, which sends balloons to the edge of space. Altaeros is experimenting with various blimp designs (including non-traditional ones, like that below) to create stable, relatively low level platforms for bouncing cell phone signals.
Altaeros.com
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As an aviation guy, and a Nottingham resident, this one caught my attention.
You write that the Town of Fremont has approved, but has the FAA weighed in on this yet?
Aerostats are a hazard to flight. I believe there’s at least one private airstrip over in that area.
I haven’t done any reporting on it yet – this is just a pointer to the U-L story. I’ll let you know when I find out.