Israeli company Starling Advanced Communications, represented here by sales and marketing vice-president Jacob Keret, says its MiniMIJET high-performance, low-profile Ku-band satellite antenna for business jets will fly for the first time in the first quarter of next year.
MiniMIJET is designed to support broadband data and voice communications over Ku-band satellite systems like Connexion by Boeing (booth 600) and Arinc SkyLink (booth 1473).
Potential platforms for initial MiniMIJET flight trials include an aircraft from one of the leading corporate aircraft manufacturers. Starling is in talks with Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault and Gulfstream, according to Keret. “They consider the performance we offer to be significantly better than that of competing technologies,” he says.
Starling says the unique multi-panel design of MiniMIJET and the larger MIJET for air transport yields true broadband performance at a fraction of the size and weight of conventional Ku-band systems.
MiniMIJET has a 400mm (16in)-diameter planar array covered with flat radiating elements. The array is split into two panels capable of sliding apart and independently rotating to steer the beam down towards the horizon and continue tracking the satellite in its equatorial orbit as the aircraft flies into higher latitudes. The full array is presented to the satellite all the way down to 20° elevation, so there is no loss of gain performance to that point.
The solution – which includes algorithms designed to preserve the integrity of the beam as the segments slide apart – is based on earlier defence work carried out by Starling parent companies Rafael and Elta. The resulting antenna stands just 100mm high and supports data rates of 512Kbit/s from the aircraft and 4-6Mbit/s in the opposite direction, according to Starling. MiniMIJET is highly integrated, with all functions packaged on the underside of the array panels or otherwise beneath the radome. Only one fuselage penetration is required, for a single cable connecting the antenna with the satellite modem inside the aircraft.
Starling has a co-operation agreement with Arinc in relation to the latter’s SkyLink satellite broadband service for business aviation. The company expects to have integrated MiniMIJET with SkyLink avionics by the end of this year, with a first flight likely by the end of the first quarter of next year.
Source: Flight Daily News