Gogo Business Aviation has validated the performance capabilities of its Plane Simple electronically steered antenna (ESA) during a series of flight tests conducted in collaboration with defense technology company MAG Aerospace. The tests confirmed the ESA’s ability to maintain consistent connectivity through a range of flight maneuvers and operational scenarios.
Developed in partnership with satellite networking specialist Gilat Satellite Networks, the full-duplex antenna underwent rigorous evaluation that included standard taxi, takeoff, and landing procedures, as well as more demanding flight patterns such as racetracks, figure-eights, and steep banking maneuvers of up to 30 degrees. System resilience was further tested through simulated power loss scenarios, with the ESA demonstrating immediate automatic reconnection without engineer intervention.
“The system performed flawlessly throughout the test program and did not require remedial intervention at any point, highlighting the capability of this multipurpose antenna,” said Gogo CEO Chris Moore.
The flight trials, conducted from Titusville, Florida, used MAG Aerospace’s universal adapter plate (UAP). This FAA-certified turnkey radome system allowed the ESA to be mounted on a Cessna Caravan test aircraft.
During testing, the ESA maintained stable network connections capable of supporting multiple simultaneous high-bandwidth applications across several devices. These applications included streaming services at 8K resolution, videoconferencing, messaging platforms, corporate VPN access, and cloud storage utilization.
As the third antenna in Gogo’s Plane Simple portfolio, the ESA is being developed to address the connectivity requirements of aircraft platforms ranging from turboprop singles to biziners. The low-power system is specifically engineered to meet the mission profiles of VVIP, head-of-state, government, and special-missions operators by leveraging the Eutelsat OneWeb constellation’s broadband capabilities.
Data collected during the trials has been provided to Gilat for analysis to determine any final modifications needed to optimize performance. Pre-production hardware manufacturing has commenced to support FAA airworthiness testing and network-type approval processes, with production hardware deliveries expected later this year to support customer supplemental type certifications.