The Business of Passenger Experience
Each of OneWeb’s post-bankruptcy investors plays a strategic role in the company’s future. Last week’s news of a new partner keeps that streak alive, as Korea’s Hanwha Systems added $300 million to the company’s coffers.
Perhaps more importantly, however, Hanwha can provide a critical component of the company’s technical roadmap. Expect to see electronically steered antenna (ESA) solutions delivered from Hanwha to power the OneWeb customer terminals.
Of course you need satellite capacity to test a new antenna solution, so signing a contract for that isn’t particularly surprising. But the vision NXTCOMM has for how it might make use of the capacity going forward is far more interesting, a break from the rest of the market.
There’s a new boss in town at SmartSky. David Helfgott takes over as CEO of the company, replacing Haynes Griffin. Griffin will remain as executive chairman at the company as part of the transition.
Astronics is ready to move beyond the AeroSat antenna challenges of years past. In today’s quarterly earnings call CEO Peter Gundermann exuded confidence in the potential for the company’s latest partnership, with SES and Collins Aerospace, for a tail-mount solution to fly on larger biz jets.
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.
This week we’re going behind the scenes with the APEX Media team to talk about the latest issue of the APEX Experience Magazine, the first all-digital edition in history. Plus Delta’s new plans for inflight connectivity, more connecting options and a way to zap diseases on board with UV-C light.
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.
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.
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.
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.
