SAS-51
The Sanswire SAS-51 is TAO patented solar powered autonomously controlled airship designed to fly on predetermined missions based on GPS coordinates. The concept behind the SAS-51 was to construct an airship with the intention of combining lighter-than-air technology and renewable energy systems for propulsion. The idea was to demonstrate an unmanned air-ship with a photovoltaic energy supply provides enough capacity for sensible use of an airship. Past missions have led to improvements of the actual technology used in the airship, as well as important new experiences about operating such a vehicle were gained. Since then the airship has been used for further research activities in the field of airship technology itself and also as a flying platform in other fields of science and applications.
