Raytheon has been working with Angel Technologies to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept since 1996. In an August flight test using ground and airborne electronics developed by Raytheon, the companies jointly demonstrated a record-breaking 52 megabit per second wireless link between the ground and Angel's HALO Network' testbed aircraft in flight.

The demonstration included simultaneous transmission of data such as movies, real-time, high definition video conferencing, large (7MB) file transfers, web browsing through an ISDN connection to an Internet service provider, and telephone calls. This type of capability today would only be available through a high-speed, high-cost fiber optic cable network. To put it in perspective, a 100,000-page document sent over a 28.8 Kbps computer modem would require seven hours. This technology transmits the same amount of data in 16 seconds.

"Aside from setting the record, we are particularly excited by our ability to conduct this trial using mostly commercial-off-the-shelf components," said James Martin, Raytheon HALO Project Engineer. "The results bolster our confidence that much of the HALO Network proposed by Angel Technologies can be constructed using technology adapted from commercial broadband technology in combination with existing switching and routing technologies."

The technology demonstration underscores the significance of today's successful inaugural flight of Angel Technologies' first HALO aircraft, called HALO-Proteus', which is designed to operate at an altitude of 51,000 feet and higher, above commercial airline traffic and adverse weather. With its large antenna array and network components, it can serve customers throughout an area of thousands of square miles.

Customers will be able to access the HALO Network unobstructed by buildings, trees, and terrain features that affect ground-based systems, while providing a digital network relay system at a fraction of the cost of other systems. With a small receiver dish installed on homes and businesses, users will be able access services such as large data file transmission at high speed, Internet connection, real-time, high resolution video conferencing and video-on-demand rentals.

Raytheon/Angel 2/3

"The Angel HALO Network is an excellent application of Raytheon's extensive suite of defense and commercial technologies and innovative products," said Dave Welp, executive vice president and general manager of Raytheon Systems Company's Sensors and Electronic Systems segment. "Raytheon brings considerable technical depth and breadth in airborne and ground electronics systems, as well as the aircraft integration capability necessary to fully implement such a system."

"Raytheon's extensive airborne electronics capabilities are a good match for the HALO Network," said Dr. Nicholas Colella, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Angel Technologies. "This trial is one of several steps we plan that will lead to full scale development of the HALO Network, Angel's vision for a multi-gigabit per second metropolitan area network."

"Long distance carriers, local and regional Internet service providers, competitive access providers and those responsible for configuring enterprise networks are looking for alternative network solutions in addition to the conventional local loop," said Vernon Fotheringham, Vice-Chairman, Angel Technologies. "This trial suggests that in addition to looking around for solutions, they would do well to look up as."

Angel Technologies Corporation is a privately held wireless communications company using a proprietary High Altitude Long Operation (HALO) aircraft design called HALO-Proteus to deliver services worldwide. Augmenting terrestrial towers and orbiting satellites, Angel's HALO aircraft will fly fixed patterns in the stratosphere over major cities to deliver metropolitan wireless services at lower cost, with increased flexibility and improved quality of service. Working with corporate partners, Angel will deliver a variety of fixed and mobile wireless services including voice, data and video.

Angel and its corporate strategic partners are developing a large capacity wireless metropolitan area communications network (The HALO Network) to provide broadband digital network services over an area encompassing a typical large U.S. metropolitan area. The HALO Network will enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive data at multi-megabit per second rates. It will be replicated over metropolitan centers throughout the world.

The HALO-Proteus aircraft, designed by Burt Rutan and manufactured by Wyman-Gordan Company (NASDAQ:WYMN), will provide the commercial communication industry a reliable alternative infrastructure which can be deployed instantly, even when terrestrial infrastructure is missing or incomplete. Applications that will benefit most from the availability of airborne deployment will be new broadband data services in developed countries and wireless telephony services in the developing world. Equipped with suitable payloads, HALO-Proteus aircraft will deliver high-capacity, high-quality services while positioned 10 miles above metropolitan regions. The HALO-Proteus aircraft with its payload will create a cellular pattern covering an area comparable to several hundred cellular towers.

Additional information about Angel Technologies and the HALO Network can be found at the website: http://www.broadband.com.

Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader with worldwide 1997 proforma sales of more than $20 billion and approximately 115,000 employees. The company provides state-of-the-art products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 80 countries around the world.

Additional Technical Data

For the flight demonstration, the digital data stream comprised a multiplexed flow of multi-media signal sources including voice, LAN-to-LAN Ethernet data, Internet access, large file transfers, and real-time full motion video conferencing. The link carried data at the rate of 51.8 megabits per second from a ground antenna to an airplane and back while the plane circled 25 miles away at an altitude of 30,000 feet. More than 1.5 terabits of data were transported during eight hours of operation.