Patent ID: 6968187

Claim:
A communications link for the cellular communications system, comprising: a first airplane for flying in a first pattern and including a first antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a first footprint on a first target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the footprint with a first communications link said second footprint at least partially overlapping said first footprint; a second airplane for flying in a second pattern and including a second antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a second footprint on a second target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the second footprint with a second communications link; said first and second airplane configured to fly in the first and second patterns at an altitude less than approximately fifty thousand (50,000) feet; said first and second patterns being varied to enable the first and second airplane to provide continuous uninterrupted coverage via first and second beam patterns, respectively, to a service area below in a weather pattern-independent and geographic feature-independent manner.