FYI, in the broadband world a Viasat system on a corporate jet costs around $650k.
Has a very large dish antenna in the top of the tail and only suits large corporate jets. Until now Midsize jets have either GOGO if they fly USA only, or Inmarsat for international.
The big K Band players like Viasat, Intelsat, Inmarsat Utelsat etc all have the same issue. The curvature of the fuselage on a business jet makes it very virtually impossible to mount the existing antennas and same challenge will happen on the next Gen flat plate antennas.
Not so hard on a Boeing or Airbus airliner, but the bracket and seal needed to mount on them cost around USD$100k.
As they are outside the pressure vessel you cannot get a more hostile temperature and vibration environment and the fuselage bends and flexes.
The other common issues with KBand is, just like your SatTV, heavy cloud kills the internet service and moisture on the dish/plate from condensation has a similar effect by slowing it right down. So the bracket and seal design is critical, but don’t fly in clouds. Hence why on many winter flights no signal.
That is why all aircraft navigation satellites including GPS satellites are L Band (the ones we use). You can’t have cockpit coms or GPS shut down, plus they only need very small antennas.
Ron
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