Apcela, Liberty Partners Team on Bizav Wi-Fi Upgrades

Air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity provider Apcela and Liberty Partners have developed an upgrade path for installation of Apcela (née SmartSky) systems on legacy business airplanes that simplifies the certification process. Installing ATG on older aircraft using the major alteration process “gives operators of legacy business aircraft a faster, more predictable, and cost-effective path to modern in-flight connectivity,” according to Apcela.

Liberty Partners provides the FAA field-approval engineering and PMA parts for the upgrades, available for older Cessna Citations, Dassault Falcons, Gulfstreams, Hawkers, and Learjets. The company will develop supplemental type certificates (STCs) for these installations later, as more owners of those aircraft upgrade to Apcela ATG systems, and these will “migrate cleanly into the STC.”

In the meantime, aircraft owners can take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to Apcela ATG without having to wait for an STC to be approved.

“We have STCs on most newer-model airframes. For older airframes that we have not yet reached with STCs, like a Learjet 45 or Hawker 800, those don’t need a clean-sheet STC program to get modern connectivity; they need approved data, the right hardware, and a team that can install it,” said Apcela CTO Mike Dodson. “Pairing Apcela ATG’s connectivity platform with Liberty Partners’ engineering and PMA hardware lets operators upgrade efficiently, without the cost, downtime, or uncertainty of a bespoke or upfront STC program.”