Fort Worth, Texas-based Stellar Blu Solutions’ work to support inflight connectivity with its multi-orbit electronically steerable antenna (ESA), including on Boeing aircraft, is progressing well, key partners confirmed during the APEX/IFSA Global EXPO in Long Beach.
“We’re making great progress with Stellar Blu,” said John Wade, vice president, connectivity business unit at Panasonic Avionics, which is using Sidewinder as its multi-orbit retrofit ESA to support GEO + OneWeb LEO service, and who was kind enough to stand for a photo with the kit during the show.
“In fact, I was just talking to [Stellar Blu CEO] Tracy Trent as you might have seen. They’re making very strong progress. They’re getting close to putting their antennas into qual. So that’s a big step forward in terms of getting ready for black label.”
He added in reference to Stellar Blu:
We’re seeing their programs track towards having hardware available in 2024. Our software is tracking along in parallel to that. So, we’ll be looking to have our first [retrofit] installations towards the latter point of 2024.
Stellar Blu is of course operating under what is understood to be a TSA with Boeing to ensure compatibility with the airframer’s existing IFC provisions (which are a throwback to the airframer’s old Connexion by Boeing days).
The project — which, among other things, will see Boeing make a decision on whether or not to move legacy antenna mounting provisions in or not — is expected to initially support easy post-delivery retrofit modifications involving Sidewinder, but is viewed as a pathway to ultimately obtaining full linefit offerability inclusive of the antenna, which would benefit Panasonic and fellow Stellar partner Intelsat, each a OneWeb distribution partner in aero.
Where will the Sidewinder LEO modem reside?
Boding well for achieving offerability, perhaps, is the fact that Stellar Blu has pursued a configuration that appears to suit Boeing’s desires — if perhaps with a twist.
Providing color about the current paradigm, “satcom guru” Peter Lemme noted that “below decks” Boeing has “tried to stay more or less along the lines of a MODMAN, you know the LRU set that we’ve defined in the ARINC standards.”
The modem lives in the MODMAN. Yet according to Kontron avionics product manager Yves Beaumont, when it comes to implementation of first-generation LEO solutions — i.e. actual solutions available on the market: “At the moment, there is no LEO capable modem that can be mounted inside a typical MODMAN or AMU installed in the avionics bay.”
So what is being done?
For Sidewinder, Stellar Blu’s antenna controller and management unit (ACMU) “was designed to be linefit compatible. The ACMU contains the LEO modem,” Stellar Blu vice president Stephen Rice told RGN. Kontron is developing the ACMU and indeed the power supply unit for Sidewinder, under an arrangement announced at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.
Compatibility with OneWeb
Who is supplying the OneWeb modem for this and indeed other OneWeb LEO and multi-orbit LEO/GEO IFC projects?
A source told RGN that OneWeb partner Hughes is busily developing what is believed to be the first (and possibly the only) Gen 1 OneWeb-compatible aero modem, which will be Inside Aircraft Equipment (IAE) rather than Outside Antenna Equipment (OAE), and suitable for install in an avionics bay.
When we sought comment from Hughes, company vice president Reza Rasoulian revealed:
Hughes has developed a OneWeb aero modem module that is capable of being integrated inside of the pressure vessel.
Hughes is also OneWeb’s ground segment and modem partner, in addition to the developer of a state-of-the-art ESA that is lightweight, high performance, and easy to install for airlines globally. Hughes is also a global aviation service provider with the ability to help airlines and select partners worldwide to implement high speed, low latency services at scale with our Hughes In-Flight suite of Aero offerings that enables an unmatched passenger experience.
ST Engineering iDirect, another key aero modem provider, did not provide an update on its LEO aero modem work.
LEO + GEO integration
As reported, Stellar Blu’s agreement with Boeing contemplates a multi-orbit solution, including various GEO modems. “Boeing will obviously dictate where this equipment will be located,” said Rice. [It has, after all, made some exceptions in the market.]
“The ACMU is compatible with various GEO modems (integration is complete with multiple); it will be made available for other antenna systems/OEMs,” added Rice.
Confirming that Intelsat’s ESA plan for Boeing equipage “is all totally consistent” with what Rice shared with RGN, Intelsat SVP commercial Dave Bijur said Intelsat is “mounting GEO and LEO modems in the avionics bay” for Boeing installs.
As to the commercial question: how will Sidewinder be offered and selected? “That is a question for Boeing and I don’t think they will answer it yet,” Rice told RGN in a 31 August email exchange.
We sought to secure an update from Boeing at Global EXPO about the airframer’s IFEC catalogue work, including in support of LEO-powered IFC, but alas, Rice proved correct in his assessment.
Other ESAs
As readers are aware, some competing aero ESA solutions that support NGSO IFC service have taken a different approach for initial aircraft retrofits.
“[I]n the case of Stellar Blu’s installation, the modem is remote. But in the case of the Hughes’ installation [for Gogo], they’ve embedded the modem in the antenna. Starlink has also embedded the modem in the antenna. So that’s something to keep in mind. That’s an option. You don’t necessarily have to have it separate,” noted Lemme.
Indeed, during a prior interview, Hughes’ Rasoulian explained: “With the Gogo antenna systems that we’ve developed, it’s essentially power in and ethernet out so we have a solution where it’s a very simple, easy-to-install package. Everything is in the antenna system so that reduces the need for a modem within the pressure vessel or the E/E Bay.”
But Boeing linefit is a different beast. So having key stakeholders apparently on the same page — and speaking the same language — about equipage of Sidewinder to Boeing aircraft augurs well for the program.
And what of Airbus linefit?
Whilst Safran Passenger Innovations’ decision to adopt Get SAT’s newly branded “AeroLESA” electronically steerable antenna for the multi-orbit terminal it’s supplying for the Ku-band portion of Airbus’ linefit supplier-furnished HBCplus program certainly dealt a blow to Stellar Blu and its Sidewinder kit, and perhaps to a far lesser extent, ThinKom Solutions’ ThinAir Plus hybrid architecture (a version of which was briefly referred to as Ku2525+ when under consideration for HBCplus), Stellar Blu still enjoys an enviable position amongst other ESA-makers, given that both Intelsat and Panasonic are using its hardware for retrofits, and that linefit work with Boeing is progressing.
Moreover, its multi-orbit ESA is expected to debut on retrofitted aircraft long before Airbus aircraft will be delivered factory-fit with the SPI terminal inclusive of Get SAT’s dual-beam hardware in 2026. (It remains to be seen when a retrofit package for the AeroLESA-based SPI terminal will be ready.)
