preliminary latency data is “very good, United's swiftbroadb United Betting on Satcom
Many airlines, including United Airlines, are looking at satcom as a strategic asset and devoting resources to leverage it to deliver the best return on investment. The company is a user of both Inmarsat Swiftbroadband and Iridium, having recently added Iridium service to the carrier’s 757s to enable coverage over the poles.
“Satcom is extremely important, and it’s going to become more critical as we need to get more data to and off the aircraft,” said Capt. Chuck Stewart, chief technical pilot at Chicago-based United, which operates one of the largest fleets in the world.
For the past two years, he’s led a cross-sector satcom strategy development team that is determining the priorities for satcom upgrades fleet by fleet, looking at criteria such as technology obsolescence, reliability and data costs.
He’s focused on cockpit upgrades only, but emphasizes that United remains committed to in-flight cabin connectivity to enhance the customer experience, with most of the fleet offering Wi-Fi to passengers.
Swiftbroadband Safety’s All-Digital Service
Recently, United has worked to meet the performance-based communications and surveillance (PBCS) requirement that ensures airlines can have reduced separations in capacity bottlenecks along the North Atlantic flight corridor. New technologies and procedures like this would reduce the minimum lateral and longitudinal separation, hence increasing capacity in this airspace by adding tracks spaced by one-half degree of latitude within the core tracks.
United has trialed new Swiftbroadband Safety, which upgrades Inmarsat’s classic aero customers to an all-digital system, providing more secure, faster connections in the cockpit.
“Because SB Safety is completely digital, it allows you to use all the functionality you would have from an internet connection, however, it’s fully secure,” explained Inmarsat’s van Essen. For example, Honeywell’s Connected Weather Radar solution takes data from the radar sensor on the nose of the aircraft to the ground and combines it with information from other aircraft flying in the vicinity and on the ground to give pilots a 3-D picture of weather for a whole section of the sky.
United currently is trialing the system on three 767-300s, and preliminary latency data is “very good,” said Stewart. “We will not have any problems meeting PBCS requirements, and we’ll be able to add electronic flight bag (EFB) applications.”
Two new EFB applications the airline is exploring include those that optimize routes and provide more robust real-time turbulence predictions while in flight. Both applications may require a better satellite system “depending on how much data is needed and how fast we need to get it to the airplane,” Stewart said.
Another top priority is to upgrade those aircraft from high-frequency systems to satcom that currently operate routes to Hawaii. Stewart said United can still meet performance and operational requirements with older satellite systems, but welcomes the higher speeds and reliability enabled by new systems are welcome.
Mark Lebovitz, president of Texas-based L2 Aviation, a flight deck technology integrator, sees similar trends among his aviation clients, including wanting to replace their high-frequency systems with satcom.
“With satcom, you’re able to meet faster communication and surveillance performance requirements allowing controllers to place aircraft closer and closer. If aircraft systems can consistently meet those requirements, you will receive better routes and tracks and you’re able to navigate to your destination with less fuel requirements,” he said.
Lebovitz’s customers also are major users of Inmarsat Swiftbroadband, though he said many also are excited about Iridium NEXT. “When Iridium NEXT is fully launched, we believe our Iridium Block 1 customers will upgrade and be able to get the safety and supporting information they need in the flight deck at much higher speeds. We definitely see a lot of interest once the new IP-based network is fully operational.”
Iridium’s next-generation network is expected to fully roll out in 2018, with 66 active satellites, nine in-orbit spares and six ground spares, which will provide secure data and voice services and pole-to-pole coverage.
According to the latest available updates from Iridium, to date, 40 satellites have been deployed and 35 more are set to launch, with the next launch scheduled for March 18. Iridium Certus is the service that will provide the connectivity through Iridium NEXT.
“If Iridium NEXT comes out and it proves out to be faster, cheaper and as good as Swiftbroadband, then we have an alternative to think about,” said Stewart. “But until that happens, Swiftbroadband is proving to be quite good, and in the short term, is our sub-polar satellite system of choice.”