The summer looked good for Astronics. The company saw green shoots of a recovery and was ready to resume its production of components for aircraft manufacturers and interiors suppliers. But as the summer came to a close so did that hope of a quick return to 2019 levels of production. And with the 737 MAX still grounded the company finds itself in what CEO Peter Gundermann describes as a “pretty tough” place.
antenna
Amazon commits $10 billion to Kuiper LEO constellation
What does it take to put a new low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation into service? The myriad technical challenges are not to be underestimated, of course, but a lot of it comes down to money. In the case of the Amazon Kupier project that’s a $10 billion commitment.
Astronics feels the pain of production, retrofit slowdowns
As a key supplier of systems for commercial aircraft production and retrofit work it is no surprise that Astronics will see a significant hit to its revenue in 2020. The company is not providing formal guidance, but in its quarterly earnings call this week CEO Peter Gundermann spoke to some of the numbers and just how bad the situation looks.
Scratch that ESA from the market, at least for now
With Astronics cutting exposure to the inflight connectivity antenna business some commercial aircraft products are likely looking for new partners. That’s bad news for airlines hoping to see new tech flying soon.
OneWeb plans faster inflight connectivity network
With a mission statement of “Internet access everywhere, for everyone” OneWeb has plenty of markets where it can deliver its product to excited customers. Going forward the company wants commercial aviation to be a large part of that conversation. The company is starting to talk in detail about its plans for joining the market, and its targets are significant.
Tariffs, 737 MAX, satellite crash hit Astronics earnings
How many different ways can one company get beat up in the inflight entertainment and connectivity market? Astronics faces headwinds in its Aerospace market on three fronts. The 737 MAX grounding has costs on both new production and retrofit efforts, while the loss of Intelsat 29E grounded a connectivity program indefinitely. Add in tariffs related to China suppliers that the company is paying and the numbers are going to be rough in that segment for the foreseeable future.
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OneWeb launches high-speed satellite production facility
How does a company get a 650 satellite constellation into operation affordably and before the earliest builds are outdated? Building two a day in a brand new facility should help. Here’s how OneWeb is making it happen.
PaxEx Premium: More phased array delays??
The inflight connectivity community has suffered from years of disappointment as promise after promise from manufacturers failed to yield electronically steered phased array (ESAs) antennae for commercial aircraft. Phasor and others appeared poised to break that streak, with the news at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg more optimistic than not. An update from one inflight connectivity provider this week calls some of that optimism into question, however.
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PaxEx Premium: A pleasant surprisESA
The only official announcement around electronically steered antennae (ESA) for commercial aircraft this week at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg came from Gogo. And it probably was the least significant ESA story from the show. Instead, a surprise from a different supplier stole the spotlight.
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Ball Aerospace successfully tests phased array antenna with Telesat LEO satellite
Score another successful test of existing antenna hardware on the new, LEO satellite technology. This time it is Ball Aerospace and its electronically steered flat panel kit linking up with Telesat’s LEO 1.