Bags of hot air (well, bags of lighter-than-air gas, to be exact) may one day provide a cost-effective alternative (or complement) to coverage-limited terrestrial cell sites and out-of-this-world satellites with an out-of-this-world price tag. A former NASA engineer and an Arizona-based firm are working on prototypes of airships designed to provide cellular service to large coverage areas, and to remote areas out of reach from traditional cell sites.

Bob Jones' prototype for what he calls the Stratellite weighs in at 750 pounds, has five separate helium lift cells contained within a rigid carbon composite airframe, cost about $3 million to build, and bears little resemblance to the Goodyear blimp (the Stratellite has a broad, tapered nose like a shark's head). But the Stratellite is designed not as a leisurely-paced tourist vehicle, or as an ad-in-the-sky, but to go much higher, thirteen miles above ground, and for longer, up to eighteen months at a time. At that height, Jones believes the Stratellite can provide cell service to an area the size of Texas. The prototype's scheduled for test flights beginning later this month at Palmdale.

Space Data's vision for a similar service is based off the more familiar - and proven - weather balloon, carrying to the stratosphere not barometers and thermometers but the equipment to receive, boost, and transmit cell phone signals. Unlike the Stratellite, the 125 foot-long Sanswire 2 targets areas too remote from cellular service, or where cell signals cannot reach them due to terrain features. They've got plans to float a test "tech-demo" balloon over a remote part of North Dakota to demonstrate the tech and the service, and company is already in negotiations with several unidentified cell service providers. If all goes well, they expect to float their first operational and commercial gas bag as early as next year, over western Texas.

After being relegated to the attic of aviation history (especially after great strides in the development of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and the memory of the Hindenburg and other similar airship disasters), airships are making a comeback to the skies of the 21st century. Besides being used as communications platforms - an idea that was toyed with by dot-com companies back before the bubble burst - there are plans to use them for heavy freight too bulky or too heavy for their heavier-than-air cousins, and even a return to passenger service (though as a "cruise ship" service rather than high-speed air passenger transport).