Satcom Direct has announced that Avcon Jet is the launch customer for its Plane Simple fuselage-mounted Ku-band electronically-steered antenna (ESA). The duplex and multichannel flat-panel antenna will connect Avcon Jet’s aircraft with the Eutelsat OneWeb low-earth-orbit satellite constellation.
The network delivers terrestrial levels of connectivity, with up to 195 Mbps download and 36 Mbps upload speeds. “Multiple” aircraft in the fleet will be outfitted as part of a wider fleet upgrade, according to the companies.
Avcon Jet, which operates and manages a fleet of more than 100 aircraft around the world, is also installing other antennas from Satcom Direct’s Plane Simple family. They comprise two tail-mounted units: a Ka-band antenna that connects with existing and new-generation Viasat satellites, and a Ku-band unit that works with Intelsat's business aviation-dedicated FlexExec airtime.
“The agreement with Avcon Jet heralds a new era for fleet connectivity,” said SD president Chris Moore. “We are committed to meeting the needs of aircraft operators seeking genuine global coverage and are excited that, with Avcon Jet, we can demonstrate the advantages of working with the multi-faceted Plane Simple portfolio of antenna systems to fulfill the demand for high-speed connectivity.”
As well as providing high-performance reliable connectivity, the platform-agnostic Plane Simple family’s open architecture design reduces obsolescence and enables a pathway for simple, rapid upgrades to cope with evolutions in the connectivity landscape.