Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The company is promoting airships as a viable alternative to satellites for a range of markets.

ATG has just signed a deal with the Malaysian government for its StratSat - an unmanned stratospheric airship communications plat-form, which is capable of carrying transponders for high speed Internet services, direct broadcast TV and mobile telecoms.

Leading an Anglo-US consortium, the company has signed a preliminary deal with the Malaysian state of Melaka to produce a business plan by January for the deployment of the technology.

If the project is approved, it could lead to an 18 month, £103m development programme, funded by various Malaysian gover-nment agencies.

ATG’s StratSat platform harnesses a number of innovative features. The technology provides a geo-stationary platform at 20 km altitude (well above the flight path of aircraft), capable of remaining on-station for up to five years.

Steered from a command centre on the ground, the unmanned airship is propelled by a combination of solar and diesel power, and is capable of holding station within 1 km.

The platform can be used for a variety of uses including communications relay, electronic surveillance and even earth sensing and photographic reconnaissance.

ATG has developed the StratSat in response to the “massive increase in the capability expected from cell-phones and the Internet revolution in the first decade of the 21st Century.”

The company said its StratSat platform was “considerably cheaper” than both of the currently available competing technologies.

Conventional satellites typically cost £138m to launch and have an associated risk of launch failure, while the proliferation of communications towers, which have a price tag of around £70,000 per tower, has attracted criticism from public health and environmental lobbies.

ATG chairman Roger Munk founded the company in February 1996, assembling a team of designers which has collaborated on a number of key breakthroughs and innovations in the field, as far back as 1971.

The team’s achievements include a major design study for the world’s first ultra large airship capable of transporting natural gas - conducted for Shell; the development of Skyship 500, which is generally accepted as the world’s first modern technology airship; the winning of a contract for the prestigious US Navy anti-cruise missile programme and more recently a design and certification contract for the world’s most advanced airship for the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Advanced Technology Group’s head office, design centre, manufacturing and flight testing facilities are in Cardington in a giant purpose-built hangar and adjacent airfield. ATG also has a West Coast office in California and business partners in North Carolina, USA and Romania.

ATG leads a consortium in the project which includes telecoms equipment maker Marconi, US defence group Raytheon, Qinetiq - part of the UK defence research labs - and SkyLarc, a spin-out from York University.

The company has invested between £4m and £5.5m in StratSat but over the last 30 years overall development and operating costs amount to around £350m.

The company has also sold an AT-10 airship through an aviation company in Singapore. It will operate out of Shanghai in China and will be used by the police for surveillance, and the media for advertising.