By Phil Lightstone | October 13, 2022 Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 55 seconds.
Connectivity to the open internet while airborne from a business jet is becoming as ubiquitous as GPS signals, with passenger and flight crew expectations similar to onboard coffee. Such connectivity while airborne consists of three main components to create an end-to-end connection to the internet: the hardware, consisting of a supplemental type certificated (STC’d) satellite antenna, data terminal, firewall/router, and Wi-Fi; satellite provisioned bandwidth; and customer services, including network security management, monitoring, and hardware repair.
Satcom Direct (SD) of Melbourne, Florida, has been manufacturing satellite connectivity technologies since 1997, providing connectivity to the business aviation community globally. To facilitate an enhanced customer procurement experience, SD recently bundled the hardware, satellite network, and proactive “Security as a Service” managed services into one single offering. Until two years ago, SD customers would source antenna hardware — which is critical to airborne satellite communications — from other companies.
In February 2020, the company began a ground-up development of an antenna series that would simplify the connectivity process. This led to the development of the SD Plane Simple Ku-band tail-mounted antenna — the first connectivity terminal dedicated to business aviation, which is expected to enter service this month.
The antenna features two line replaceable units (LRUs) to simplify installation, configuration, and future upgrades. It delivers consistent performance for a seamless in-flight internet experience. Personal devices, like smartphones, tablets and laptops, can be connected for video streaming, cloud-based applications, internet access, large file downloads, and email. Network capacity is dedicated to business aviation to ensure bandwidth is always available, even on high-traffic routes.
Satellite connectivity for the Ku-band antenna is provided by Intelsat, which launched its first geostationary satellite in 1965 in support of the Apollo moon landings. SD is the master distributor for the Intelsat FlexExec high-speed satellite service.
The current list of aircraft for which the Plane Simple Ku-band antenna is certified by both the FAA and EASA includes: the Bombardier Global 5000, 6000, Express, and Express XRS; and the Dassault F2000LX/LXS. The antenna is strictly FAA certified on the Gulfstream GIV, GIV-X, G450, GV, GV-SP, and G550. More aircraft are expected to follow by the end of the year.
The SD Avionics facility in Kanata, Ontario, is responsible for the certification of the entire Plane Simple Ku terminal, consisting of the QEST antenna and the SD-designed and manufactured Satellite Modem Unit (SMU). Along with SD’s product and program management team in Melbourne, validation of the new antenna was conducted on SD’s G550 test bed aircraft.
“I have been doing satellite hardware development for the past 30 years, and this was the most intense project yet,” said Joanne Walker, GM of SD Avionics.
“But I have a world-class team in Kanata, which made this major development project relatively smooth and trouble-free. We have set a new high-water mark for innovating airborne connectivity and expect our next antennas to perform just as well.”
Currently, there are 16 customers supporting in-service evaluation of the new SD antenna. Moreover, a Plane Simple Ka-band antenna is in development and is expected to be released in early 2023. It will be followed by a flat panel, electronically steered, phased-array version, which will support light aircraft such as the Phenom 300 or Cessna CJ3.
From a consumer perspective, SD takes complete ownership of its antenna solution from start to finish. While the company offers 24/7 technical support, its global technical support team is reinforced by a Network Operations Centre (NOC) located at the company headquarters, which monitors data behavior in flight to anticipate and remediate outages, mitigate cybersecurity events, and ensure optimal connectivity performance.
“The NOC’s mantra is to stay ahead of the aircraft,” said Walker. “We can mitigate cyber threats, and will anticipate service interruptions — and often remedy them — before the aircraft experiences any break in the connectivity.”
Ultimately, airborne internet connectivity is no longer a nice-to-have. SD has created an end-to-end solution designed to make complex technology completely transparent to aircrews, maintenance techs, and passengers.
