The world of inflight connectivity has seen many changes over the past couple of decades, but the past 18 months the pace of innovation is hitting hyper speed. The biggest news for the industry has been the deployment of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations and the technological evolution of electronically steerable antennas (ESAs).
Gogo Business Aviation and one other LEO satellite provider are bringing the new networks and antennas to business aviation operators that will deliver a broadband experience with much faster data rates and increased bandwidth, with global coverage, to accommodate more devices and data-hungry service like streaming video, video conferencing, cloud computing and much more.
What it means for operators depends on what and where they fly, but it ultimately means they’ll no longer have to compromise when adding inflight connectivity to their aircraft.
Up until now, operators have been forced to make a choice about what they’ll sacrifice when it comes to adding inflight connectivity to their aircraft based on either limited coverage, or no coverage for those who fly outside North America, depending on the size of the aircraft. When Gogo Galileo, the company’s latest global broadband service launches later this year, operators will no longer be limited.
“If you think about it this way, up to now, the reality is that customers have had to compromise something when choosing the inflight Wi-Fi system they put on their aircraft,” said Sergio Aguirre, Gogo’s president and COO. “If you go with a GEO (geosynchronous) satellite solution, you’re limited to only larger airframes because of the size and weight of the equipment, and it’s also very expensive. If you go with an air-to-ground system, you’re limited to North America.
“With Gogo Galileo and the HDX terminal, no one needs to compromise anything,” he continued. “The system and antenna we’re bringing to the market are small enough they can be installed on any size business aircraft, from super light jets and turboprops on up, with true global coverage that delivers fast, low-latency broadband service. There’s nothing else like it in the market today, and it means no more compromise.”
Gogo Galileo HDX Prototype Making Connections
Gogo is making progress in the development of Gogo Galileo.
The company received the first engineering prototype of the HDX antenna in late February and installed it on the roof of its headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, to begin software integration and validation testing. The testing has continued for the past couple months with good results and Gogo will soon be installing an HDX on its Bombardier Challenger 300 testbed to begin flight testing this summer.
“Gogo Galileo HDX will revolutionize business aviation inflight connectivity because it will fit on aircraft of all sizes, and for smaller aircraft outside North America this will be the first time ever that they’ll have the ability to add broadband connectivity to their aircraft,” said Aguirre. “Flight testing with the HDX terminal will begin this summer and we’re excited to bring this game-changing technology to the market.”
The completion of the first end-to-end HDX-to-satellite connection was completed in late-March – a major milestone required for Gogo to prove the functionality of the antenna technology with the Eutelsat OneWeb LEO satellite constellation – and ultimately the entire Gogo Galileo ecosystem.
Gogo Galileo is expected to provide an order of magnitude improvement in the speed of service Gogo is providing today to meet the high expectations for fast inflight connectivity among business aviation professionals and travelers worldwide.
Other developments have taken shape in the past few weeks that bring Gogo closer to market launch including regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the Gogo Galileo HDX and FDX antenna terminals. The FDX is a larger Gogo Galileo terminal that will deliver a more robust experience for larger airframes.
The FCC Earth station in motion (ESIM) regulatory license grants Gogo the authority to commercialize and operate the terminals, which are integral to its Gogo Galileo service, on US-registered aircraft, and those registered in other countries within U.S. territory including territorial waters.
“Receiving the ESIM license for the HDX and FDX terminals represents an important milestone in bringing the Gogo Galileo service to market by year end,” said, Crystal Gordon, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Gogo. “This regulatory milestone also paves the way for additional regulatory authorizations in other countries.”
In addition to work that is currently underway to develop Supplemental Type Certifications (STCs) on more than 10 airframes in the United States, Gogo also announced that it is partnering with Atlas Air Service AG to develop the first European STC for the Gogo Galielo HDX antenna for the Cessna CitationJet series of light jet aircraft and another STC for the Embraer Phenom 300.
“For the first time ever, a true global broadband service will be available to thousands of aircraft operators in Europe and around the world,” said Radu Grigore, deputy director of MRO commercial for Atlas Air Service AG. “For many years our customers have been asking for a small and affordable broadband solution for their aircraft. We wanted to be among the first to partner with Gogo to develop these STCs and bring true broadband inflight Wi-Fi for every segment of business aviation.”
The STCs Atlas Air Service is developing will cover more than 2,600 total aircraft in operation today worldwide, comprised of more than 1,850 Citations and 750 Phenom 300s.
Highlighting the small form factor and ease of installation, Atlas Air Service will focus its initial STC on the Cessna Citation 525 series of aircraft encompassing the CJ1, CJ2, CJ3, and CJ4, with hardware installations expected this summer on a CJ1+.
The STC for the Embraer Phenom 300 is being developed in parallel with the Citation STC through the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and validated with other agencies worldwide.
“Atlas Air Service has been at the forefront of getting these STCs developed which speaks volumes about the partnership we’ve built with them,” said Shuaib Shahid, head of international sales for Gogo Business Aviation. “Atlas Air Service specializes in the market we are targeting for the HDX – midsize and smaller aircraft – making them the perfect partner for Gogo Galileo in Europe.”
Gogo had the Atlas Air CJ1+ available for in-person demos at the European Business Aviation Conference and Expo (EBACE) static display in Geneva, Switzerland last month in May, where users were thrilled with the performance of the system.
Gogo Galileo will operate on the Eutelsat OneWeb enterprise-grade LEO satellite network, which is fully deployed and will leverage the latest ESA technology. Unlike other LEO networks which are consumer-grade quality, the Gogo Galileo network is designed to meet the demands of an aviation environment and Gogo plans to offer service-level agreements (SLAs) for guaranteed levels of service.
“We have 30 years of experience providing inflight connectivity to business aviation, and we’re soley focused on business aviation,” said Aguirre. “We understand better than any other connectivity provider how people use the service on the aircraft, what they are doing while on board, and how they want pay for those services, from buckets to all-you-can eat plans. We understand all that and we’re committed to this industry.”
To learn more go to gogoair.com.