
The FAA has granted supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for installation of Satcom Direct’s Plane Simple Ka-band tail-mount antenna on Gulfstream’s G650. The satellite system and service provider also announced that it will begin flight testing a phased-array electronically steered antenna (ESA) operating on the Eutelsat OneWeb low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite network in August. Avcon Jet will be the launch customer for the Plane Simple ESA installation and plans to equip multiple aircraft in its fleet for the OneWeb service.
“Our market has been 3,000-nautical-mile-plus aircraft,” said Satcom Direct president Chris Moore. These aircraft are large enough to accommodate a tail-mounted antenna such as Satcom Direct’s 12-inch Plane Simple mechanically steered antenna, which is manufactured by QEST. “Our phased-array antenna enables us to sell a different type of service,” he said.