Each has merits, but in our evaluation, if you are able to overcome the aircraft design challenges, fixed-wing offers a far more capable platform. The stratosph

Each has merits, but in our evaluation, if you are able to overcome the aircraft design challenges, fixed-wing offers a far more capable platform. The stratosphere has winds that can exceed 100km/h. With balloons, station-keeping is an enormous challenge. We spoke to a lot of people in the Google Loon project, and ultimately this became a defining problem for them. Airships/dirigibles help a bit, but still have to drift in strong winds - beyond that, they also become extremely large and expensive to work with.