Sanswire has lofty plans for airship
be folded and stored in a crate.
UAVs in use today, such as the Reaper and Predator drones, fly no more than 30 hours at a time. Sanswire and TAO want to make ”flight history” by doubling that time during a demonstration targeted for Veterans Day at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, Christian says. Other companies, however, are working on blimps that will fly a week or longer, Kappenman notes. ”It’s sounds, from what I know so far, like an interesting concept,” says Larry Dale, the airport’s president and CEO. He has not yet seen the airship.
Sanswire and TAO are developing low-, mid- and high-altitude airships, with the latter designed to climb as high as 65,000 feet and provide a line of sight the size of Texas, says Jonathan Leinwand, a company advisor and its former CEO.
Formerly known as GlobeTel Communications, the company bought the assets of Sanswire Technology for $2.8 million in 2004. At the time, GlobeTel was primarily involved in telephone service via the Internet. GlobeTel planned to use the airship technology to provide wireless voice and data services.
GlobeTel’s revenues soared, posting $29 million in sales in 2004 and $81 million in 2005. Danner writes that the numbers were largely fake, created through the use of bogus invoices, the Securities and Exchange Commission claims in a lawsuit against two former GlobeTel officials.
The company navigated through the turmoil and forged the joint venture with TAO Technologies. Sanswire values its half stake in the partnership at about $3.2 million.
Leinwand, a director who took over as CEO in 2007, says the company needed someone of Christian’s gravitas to ”bring us through to the other side.”
”I could clean up the company, but no one wants to see me walk through the Pentagon, because I’m no one,” Leinwand says. ”We need someone who has the depth, who has been there, and who can talk about … the benefits of the airship.”
Besides his distinguished military career, Christian, 60, worked as a special assistant in the Labor Department during the Carter Administration and served as an advisor to the U.S. Senate in the areas of national defense, foreign relations and armed services. He also operates his own company, which manufactures ground-support equipment for the Navy. ”I see this as an absolute challenge,” Christian says of Sanswire.
That may be an understatement. At the end of March, Sanswire had $3.3 million of assets — including just $103,585 in cash and $18.7 million of liabilities. It has raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.
Battle scars
”The financials look like Agent Orange has been sprayed, and then napalm,” says Christian at Sanswire’s headquarters in the 21-story 101 Tower. ”If you look at the balance sheet, you want to go to the top of the roof here and figure out what side you want to jump off.”
Christian recounts his military service in the book Victor Six: The Saga of America’s Youngest, Most Decorated Officer in Vietnam. There he describes how he suffered gunshot, knife and shrapnel wounds, along with napalm burns that scarred almost 40 percent of his body. He was given last rites twice, he writes in the book, which was published in 1990.
Christian is not daunted by Sanswire’s challenges. ”Read my … book,” he says. ”Almost every situation I’ve had in life has been tremendous lemon. A horrible looking thing. I’ve been able to turn it around and make lemonade.”
Sanswire is looking to raise $2 million initially. If Sanswire ever manages to turn a profit, it will have the $125 million in past losses to offset taxes on future income. ”My feeling is we’re going to be the hottest company,” Christian says. ”It’s going to be exciting.”
