Why [Some] Inflight Connectivity Antennas are Playing Catch-Up

Below are a few excerpts from Aviation Week's Sept. 10th article, "Why Inflight Connectivity Antennas are Playing Catch-Up." Not all of us are behind, however.

According to Otto [ThinKom VP, Sales and Marketing], electronically scanned array antennas, though in development for decades, have been unable to overcome numerous technological challenges that limit their efficiency, cost effectiveness, excessive power demands and poor low-elevation performance.

'ESAs have been promised for many years, but no viable product has made it to market, and the schedules keep moving to the right,' Otto remarks. The VICTS antennas, he adds, are designed for accelerations of up to 1,000 deg./sec.², enabling them to switch from one satellite to another in less than 1 sec.

'That speed, which cannot be matched by parabolic dish or flat-panel gimbaled antennas, is what enables ThinKom’s VICTS antennas to interoperate effectively between GEO and NGSO constellations,' he says. 'We have successfully conducted live on-air trials with our commercial, off-the-shelf Ku- and Ka-band VICTS antennas, proving that we can support seamless automatic roaming between GEO and NGSO networks.'

Read more remarks from Greg Otto and the full story here.