Banyan Completes VIP 747 Cabin Electronics Upgrade

Banyan Air Service’s Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based avionics department recently completed a major avionics modification on a VIP Boeing 747SP. Adding to the challenge, the work was performed in Europe over an eight-week span. The installation consisted of the Rockwell Collins Tailwind 550 Airborne TV system, an upgrade to the existing Rockwell Collins SAT906 satcom system for dual-channel Swift 64 high-speed-data capability and the new Airshow 4000. According to Banyan, the Tailwind 550 TV system was divided into four zones so the passengers could watch their own selected channel, while six TV decoders were used to allow the passengers to view TV in the U.S., Europe and Middle East. The existing satcom system was modified to work with the new Rockwell Collins HST 2120 transceiver that allows for Internet surfing and e-mail via the EMS CNX 200 cabin router. The router was augmented with a multifunction access point to allow WiFi access throughout the aircraft.