Avionics News March 2023 - 22

PLANE SIMPLE
Continued from page 21
cations, video conference calls as well as live TV. " The results
proved that SD can support high-definition data streams
for numerous onboard users concurrently, " said Chris Moore,
president of Satcom Direct Business Aviation. During the
testing, the company's Dassault Falcon 2000LX aircraft flew
115 test hours in 62 legs and gathered 250 gigabytes of data.
Since then, a select number of customers have undertaken
in-service evaluation of the terminal confirming its performance
capabilities on a variety of different airframes.
The new hardware is designed for minimally invasive
antenna installation with just two line replaceable units - the
Satcom Direct modem unit and the antenna. The SD modem
unit can be placed in the unpressurized part of the fuselage,
aft of the passenger cabin, freeing up valuable cabin space
for passengers. Satcom Direct is developing the three new
antennas in partnership with QEST (Quantenelektronische
Systeme GMBH), a leader in advanced aeronautical antennas,
including the SD phased array ESA. QEST is located in
Germany near Stuttgart.
The Ku-band antenna approved under a multi-model
(AML) supplemental type certificate for the Gulfstream
G550, G450, GV, GV-SP and GIV-X and GIV provides an
advanced technology terminal for those airframes. This
year, Satcom Direct's FlightDeck Freedom communications
platform was selected as the default datalink system for
in-production Gulfstream G500, G600 and G650ER. Satcom
Direct is the exclusive provider of cabin and cockpit service
plans under the Gulfstream Connected Services program
established in 2017.
" The Plane Simple Ku-band tail-mounted terminal, when
married with SD's FlightDeck Freedom, allows for real-time
network monitoring to assure crew and passengers are
supported by our customer service team, " said Jim Jensen,
chief executive officer and founder of Satcom Direct. The
company notes that high-speed connectivity options have
been previously limited by capacity, restrictive pricing plans,
invasive installations and incompatibility with changing
satellite markets. " The Plane Simple antenna series resolves
these needs, " Jensen said.
SD worked with Alamo Engineering GmbH to obtain
STCs for the Ku-band antenna for multiple Bombardier
types, including the Global 6000, 5000, Express XRS and
Express. ACC Columbia Jet Service at Hannover, Germany,
equipped the first Bombardier Global Express. The system
has also been STC'd on the Dassault Falcon 2000LX, LXS
and S. The 2000LXS has a 4,000 nautical mile range at
Mach .80 and can reach Scandinavia, Australia and Alaska
from Beijing.
22 avionics news * march 2023
While the Ku-band antenna/modem combination is
designed to connect to the Intelsat FlexExec network, the
Ka-band tail-mounted antenna is designed to connect with
the Inmarsat Jet ConneX network. " The Ku-band antenna
will be the first system out there, " said Michael Skou
Christensen, chief commercial officer for Satcom Direct.
" And the next-generation satellite systems will require
electronically steered antennas. With the size ESA antenna
technology we are developing, we will provide the ability
to go onto smaller aircraft. "
This electronically steered phased array fuselage or
tail-mounted antenna will connect to the OneWeb constellation
for high-speed, low-latency in-flight broadband
system. OneWeb is a LEO satellite constellation with 542
out of a planned 648 satellites already on station. OneWeb
claims to have lower latency than GEO satellite networks
with speeds up to 195 megabits per second. An ESA
antenna is needed for LEO connections because it is agile
enough to maintain a link with a OneWeb satellite and in
under a minute establish a second connection with the next
one in line.
Satcom Direct was founded in 1997 to allow direct
dialing to an aircraft in-flight regardless of location. Today,
the company has communications solutions on more than
7,000 aircraft. Christensen said a large portion of the customers
are expected to upgrade to the new antennas, and
if they want to connect to LEO platforms, they will have
to install the ESA antenna. SD started with six employees
and has 400 today with 16 offices in eight countries and a
60,000-square-foot headquarters in Melbourne, Florida.
Five years ago, the company initiated its flat-panel ESA
antenna development with design focused on developing
a terminal to support connectivity for Phenom 300-size
aircraft. The prototype was based on a fuselage installation.
" We started our development five years ago because
we knew that there were so many entrants into the satellite
segment that not all of them were going to be successful, "
Christensen said. " So we are entering a very interesting
period for these communications solutions because customers
are going to have more choices. " Christensen sees
a consolidation coming in the marketplace as customers
identify the best solutions for their needs.
Satcom's Direct's focus on a simple design is aimed at
allowing more flexibility in establishing satcom links as
available services evolve. Technology is changing so fast
that a customer may have to upgrade the system on a corporate
aircraft before five or 10 years have passed and they
have moved on to a new-model aircraft.
" We want to have a modular and agnostic approach to
satellite terminals so customers are not tied down to whatever
choice they made for a proprietary network, " Chris
Avionics News March 2023

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