Airship maker inks deal with Boeing to allow ships to be controlled by remote

<p>A Georgia company says an airship it has developed for use in homeland defense and communications will be able to be controlled by remote anywhere in the world thanks to a deal with Boeing.</p><p>Atlanta-based Techsphere Systems International and engineering partner Sierra Nevada Corp. said Tuesday they have signed a deal to use Boeing Co. technology on Techsphere's airships.</p><p>The technology will allow the airships to fly over any region of the world with command and control for the airships directed from control centers located elsewhere.</p><p>Techsphere views the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, as a major boost to its effort to get its 2-year-old company off the ground.</p><p>In June, the company made a successful test flight with it's 60-foot, low-altitude airship to demonstrate to Navy officials that the craft has potential to be used for airborne surveillance.</p><p>The beach ball shaped airship is a prototype of the airships that Techsphere plans to build in Columbus for homeland defense, national security and as communications platforms.</p><p>Techsphere plans a larger, unmanned version for higher altitudes.</p>

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