Page 69 - World Airnews Magazine May 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

ELECTRONICALLY STEERABLE

ANTENNAS – ESSENTIAL OR

EXPENSIVE GIMMICK?

By Joanna Bailey

Phased-Array Aero Antennas Ready Now For Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

Mitsubishi unveiled an ESA less than 3cm completing the first ESA in flight operations
tall which uses active tracking to boost at the end of last year.
One of the hottest topics in IFEC last satellite acquisition speeds. However, along with the purported
year and a running theme as we move However, some companies, such as benefits of the ESA, there are some
through 2020 is the Electronically Steered Phasor, are working to bring to market downsides too. ESA’s generate a lot of heat
Antenna, or ESA. an ESA that conforms to the shape of the and draw down a great deal of power; two
fuselage.
issues that are yet to be adequately solved.
Numerous companies are pedalling hard The antennas are also more complex than
This characteristic would further reduce
to bring the first fully functioning ESA to drag, whilst still providing powerful standard technology, which indicates there
market, eyeing airlines as key customers for satellite tracking capabilities. Phasor’s will be a price penalty to pay too.
this future technology. ESA achieved ISO9001 certification last However, this last point is not confirmed
But why is the ESA such a good fit for summer, and has been said to be on track yet, which brings us nicely on to the main
aircraft, and is it the key to the future of to launch sometime in 2021. issue with the ESA.
in-flight connectivity? Right now, there is not a single ESA
DOES IT NEED TO BE ELECTRONICALLY licensed and available for sale for commer-
THE BENEFITS OF ESA FOR AIRCRAFT STEERABLE THOUGH? cial aircraft. While a lot is being done by a
One of the biggest issues with the current The big question remains whether the multitude of would-be suppliers, it’s still
line-up of connectivity solutions is the future aircraft antenna needs to be likely to be a year at least before anything
negative consequences of sticking a electronically steerable. Sure, a very low is commercially available.
radome on a plane. profile and negligible drag are key features, And all the while, satellite technology is
Aircraft manufacturers take painstaking but that’s proven to be possible with improving immeasurably.
care to build in optimum aerodynamics, in standard Ka-band antennas anyhow. Companies like SpaceX and OneWeb are
order to reduce fuel burn and create the At the start of this year, ThinKom establishing the building blocks of their
most efficient airframe possible. Adding undertook an aerodynamic study of its LEO networks, and Inmarsat’s GX Aviation
a bulky radome to the fuselage increases Ka2517 antenna, with real-life testing on network is on the path to complete global
drag, and therefore fuel burn. board some of the most popular regional coverage, with its highly elliptical orbit
The solution to this is projected to be jets in the US. The results indicated a near polar satellites set to launch in the next 18
the Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA). zero drag for the super thin radome, which months.
These small, lightweight and low profile bodes well for the future of non-steerable The real question is not whether the ESA
antennas are capable of directing a narrow antenna too. will be the key to a better in-flight Wi-Fi
beam over a sector angle, giving coverage Steerable antennas, in theory at least, experience, but whether it will arrive in
as good, if not better, than a sector antenna should be an enabler for much higher time to be relevant at all.
but all in a much smaller package. speed and more reliable in-flight Wi-Fi. Superb satellite networks may well no
For most companies developing this In tests, Gilat proved its ESA to achieve longer require antennas to be steerable,
technology, the form of the ESA is a super speeds of greater than 1GB over LEO so it remains to be seen if the ESA will ever
low profile flat panel. In February this year, satellites, and secured the accolade of find its niche. Q

World Airnews | May Extra 2020
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