N@N

Sanswire: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Builder Sanswire-TAO Starts 2009 Spiral Development and Production Schedule

^{Published on 2009-03-13 07:53:01, Last Modified on 2009-03-13 07:54:21 - Market Wire}
 

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwire - March 13, 2009) - Sanswire-TAO, [ www.sanswiretao.com ], the airship development and manufacturing joint venture equally owned by Sanswire Corp. (PINKSHEETS: [ SNSR ]), [ www.sanswire.com ], and TAO Technologies GmbH, today announced that it has started the 2009 spiral development schedule of its Lighter Than Air (LTA) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program for 2009. The spiral development schedule maps out the actions and time required to develop and produce patented multi-segmented cell airships, and allows for including an escalating range of new capabilities into the medium altitude UAV development process. With each stage a development project in its own right and a subset of the final system, Sanswire-TAO will reduce risk factors, time and expenses related to planning successive stages by evaluating progress in the prior stages.

The spiral development schedule kicks off with the production of the STS-111, a 34-meter long, autonomously controlled, rapidly deployed, non-rigid, mid-altitude, medium endurance multi-segmented airship leading into the development and production of the STS-230, a 70-meter long, autonomously controlled, rapidly deployed, non-rigid, medium to high altitude multi-segmented airship that is designed to operate for extended durations at higher altitudes through the utilization of a proprietary propulsion system. The concepts leading to the spiral development program are a result of over 15 years of research and development in Lighter Than Air (LTA) technologies and renewable energy and fuel powered prototypes of various sizes, shapes and design criteria.

"The spiral development cycle offers us cost efficiency, flexibility and speed to market," stated Jonathan Leinwand, Sanswire CEO. "The main advantages of this schedule are the ability to maintain our ultimate goal of stratospheric flight through the staged development of new designs for medium altitude platforms, and address the immediate opportunities in the marketplace. This process makes the most sense because it provides an orderly method for us to educate the client about the uniqueness of our patented segmented airships, and incrementally demonstrate the robust performance of the design to satisfy various mission requirements ranging from mid to higher altitude applications."

The viability of the Sanswire-TAO process model was validated in the September 2008 Army Science Board report "Platforms for Persistent Communications, Surveillance and Reconnaissance." The report stated:

"Medium and High Altitude LTA airships (untethered) total scores were about equal to or better than UAVs at comparable altitudes for Persistent CSR (Communications, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) because of reconfigurability, time on station, payload size and flying hour costs for medium altitude and time on station, support infrastructure and flying hour costs for high altitude. Medium altitude LTA airships offer promising capabilities for CSR in the near term due to rapidly maturing capabilities based on a number of factors including time on station, all weather capability, flying hour cost and vulnerability. As a result, High altitude LTA and UAV platforms permit offload of communication traffic from high cost commercial satellites and future military satellites (e.g. TSAT). The maturation and potential payoff of LTA technology warrants further investment in experimentation and potential acquisition because of persistence on station."

Sanswire-TAO's approach and the defined 2009 spiral development program provides a systematic approach to address both the technological challenges of increasing altitudes, payload weights and enhancing durations while advancing the systems and technologies utilized for the specific commercial and government needs for persistent, medium duration, mid-altitude airships to support homeland and border security or other operational applications.

For additional updates and advancements to the development program please visit [ www.Sanswire.com ]

About Sanswire-TAO Corp.

Sanswire-TAO exclusively owns and markets all the technology and intellectual property associated with TAO's lighter-than-air (LTA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), including the Stratellite(tm) high-altitude airships, the SAS-51 low-altitude airships, the mid-altitude SkySat airship category, and the PADDS Precision Air Drop Delivery System in the US, Canada and Mexico. Sanswire-TAO Corp. is jointly owned by TAO Technologies GmbH and Sanswire Corp. For more information, visit [ http://www.sanswire-tao.com ].

Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "forecast," "project," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," and similar expressions and all statements, which are not historical facts, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including an ongoing formal investigation by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and delayed filings of quarterly results, any of which could cause the Company's previously reported actual results, performance (finance or operating) to change or differ from future results, performance (financing and operating) or achievements, including those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no, and hereby disclaims any, obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.