'Paint-on' antennas help communications.

Byline: GEORGINA VOSS

LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- The next generation of high-altitude airships may be arriving sooner than the boffins predicted, and all due to the wonders of -- paint?

Yes, researchers at RTI International, based in North Carolina, have developed "paint-on" antennas for airships they say will further advances in both communications and surveillance technologies.

The announcement comes from RTI after the antenna performed successfully during testing in June. SA-60 spherical airships painted with the antenna successfully managed to transmit voice and data links, and teleconferencing capabilities during their test flights across the Nevada desert. The test flights provided the first opportunity to test and evaluate the electrical, electromagnetic and mechanical properties of the antenna during actual flight conditions, and the antennae themselves were tested from several positions on the airships.

"Paint-on" technologies are, in themselves, nothing wildly new, and electrically conductive paints are already widely available. Cars frequently come with paint-on antennas, which can also be etched onto printed circuit-boards. Similar systems were used with foil in security system, which, when "painted" along window frames and connected to security boxes -- if the connection via the foil-stripe broke, the alarm sounded. Amateur radio operators have also used metallic paints and circuit writers to create fractal antennas for many years. Unlike these solutions however, the paint developed by RTI and their partners, Applied EM, Unitech and TechSphere Systems, is water-soluble, making it easier and cheaper to apply and dispose of that its enamel-based counterparts.

The antennas were developed through work between RTI and its research partners including Unitech, Applied EM, the International Communications Group and TechSphere Systems International. Applied EM and Unitech are developing similar technology under the Air ...