Airbus appears to be rethinking its linefit strategy for the dual-beam electronically steered antenna (ESA)-based Safran Passenger Innovations (SPI) terminal that was in line to support the Ku-band side of its supplier-furnished HBCplus program.
“There have been some recent changes and as such we need to refer you to contact Airbus,” a SPI spokesperson said when asked by RGN if SPI has zeroed in on a solution to the heat dissipation issues surrounding multi-beam hardware and if the firm is studying other possible ESA solutions for supporting the Ku-band side of the program.
Having received intel from a tipster, RGN reached out to Airbus, asking for comment on whether it’s rethinking its linefit strategy for the large, Ku-band dual-beam ESA, and if it is eyeing other dual-beam or indeed single-beam solutions. A spokesperson for Airbus spoke only about its commitment to the “ambition” of the product, telling RGN via email:
Airbus remains fully committed to the HBCplus Ku product ambition.
We will continue to keep you updated.
During the APEX Global Expo in Long Beach, Airbus head of connected aircraft Tim Sommer spoke candidly to RGN about the heat dissipation and gate-to-gate connectivity considerations around using dual-beam ESA hardware to support IFC. These issues are naturally not unique to the Thales/Get SAT ESA hardware which forms the basis of the Ku-band terminal that SPI was to provide Airbus.
In the broader context, it is perhaps notable that dual-beam ESA proponent Hanwha Phasor has reportedly shuttered operations, as Space Intel Report revealed on 11 December. A Hanwha Phasor spokesperson told RGN on the 13th, “We are aware of the article and I unfortunately cannot provide you with any comment from the business at this time. Should this change, I will let you know.” The telephone number for Hanwha Phasor’s London corporate office now goes to a dead line.
ThinKom Solutions, meanwhile, provides its Ka2517 VICTS antenna to SPI for the Ka-band side of the Airbus HBCplus program. And its portfolio includes a separate mix-and-match ThinAir Plus package that could facilitate multi-orbit Ku-band GEO/LEO connectivity by pairing VICTS with a small LEO-only antenna, such as the Hughes Network Systems LEO-focused ESA for Eutelsat OneWeb or the SpaceX Starlink ESA. It remains to be seen if SPI and Airbus will pivot in this direction, or stay the course with an ESA (be it dual- or single-beam) though ThinAir Plus would seem like an easy answer to a number of issues, including potentially SpaceX’s interest in seeing its own hardware utilized. Indeed, your author recalls that ThinKom had in fact originally proposed this sort of configuration for the Ku-band side of HBCplus.
Given Panasonic Avionics’ recent nextgen, multi-orbit IFC program advancements using Stellar Blu Solutions’ Sidewinder single-beam ESA, and its expectation for late 2026/early 2027 Boeing linefit deliveries, RGN took the opportunity to ask Panasonic Avionics vice president, connectivity business unit John Wade to share PAC’s learnings from its own dual-beam ESA studies.
“So, it’s an interesting question and it’s one that we’ve been sort of contemplating a bit recently,” he replied. “And you’ve got to start at the question: what’s the use case for multi-beam? And if you go back to the basics of the three Cs of satellite: coverage, capacity and cost, you’ve got more capacity in LEO, you’ve got more coverage in general other than China than you do with GEO, and the cost is generally coming down so, as we start thinking about multi-beam, you start asking yourself the question, when are you going to use it? And I think that’s becoming less clear to my mind that there’s a strong compelling reason to use multi-beam.”
Panasonic and indeed Intelsat are managed service providers on the Ku-band side of the Airbus HBCplus program. Like Panasonic, Intelsat is using Sidewinder-based kit for its nextgen multi-orbit IFC retrofits and Boeing linefit installs.
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Featured image credited to Airbus SAS 2023
