With successful tests under its belt, Collins Aerospace is confident its new Iridium Certus airborne satellite communications (satcom) system for civil aviation will prove “extremely competitive” and see strong adoption when it makes its market debut in 2022.
Operating via the global Iridium NEXT constellation, the higher-bandwidth solution boasts the operational advantage of being able to connect anywhere including the poles.
But Collins Aerospace’s IRT-NX-branded system, which includes the satcom data unit, satcom configuration module and an antenna – either an Active Low Gain Antenna (ALGA) or a High Gain Antenna (HGA) depending on an operator’s bandwidth requirements – boasts other key advantages, says Collins Aerospace VP and GM of business aviation avionics Christophe Blanc.