SmartSky completed a spectacular showing at NBAA 2022 in October, marking its debut as a nationwide network. A year on from its successful demonstrations at NBAA 2021 for journalists, partners and prospective customers — this year’s NBAA 2022 demo flights were much different, “We offered rides home from NBAA on SmartSky’s Citation XL to several prospective customers, with one such flight going from Orlando to DFW. The flight was more than 2 hours in length with two passengers and six devices consuming 4GB of data during the trip. The individuals from two different companies were able to utilize VPNs, stream video, make video calls on zoom, upload and download large files — any connected activity they wanted to do, they could do,” said SmartSky President Ryan Stone. “The star of the show in this type of flight is the return link. Most airborne networks can handle large amounts of data to the aircraft, like streaming or even file downloads. But attempt a two-way action like zoom or uploading a big PowerPoint deck and on these other networks you’re either blocked from it or you just end up frustrated. This is why most people lower their connectivity expectations when they take off and aren’t happy with their experience by the time they land.”

Currently the company has STCs covering about 7,000 of the 26,000 aircraft in the addressable biz av market in the United States. See the STC list below or here.

Several STCs are currently in progress or awaiting FAA certification, and more are scheduled. Because timing of first article installations is based on the aircraft’s maintenance cycle, some may be later than others. SmartSky welcomes owners of priority models to contact them to identify potential STC opportunities with their choice of installation partner. The installation typically takes a few weeks depending on what else is being done to the aircraft — and both get bragging rights for being the first for that airframe.

Regardless of your airframe type or size, it’s likely SmartSky can offer a superior solution for your aircraft when traveling within the continental US — and that doesn’t stop in the cabin. Because of its use of 60 MHz of bandwidth in the unlicensed spectrum, you get 20 times the capacity of legacy ATG systems. This means the cockpit can access real-time situational awareness applications, and aircraft maintenance and performance info can be transferred to ground operations to improve readiness and turnaround once the aircraft lands.

Having a larger data pipe with 10x the speed for legacy ATG systems, 20x the capacity and equal capability of data transfer to and from the aircraft does more than transform the connected aircraft experience, it is transforming the industry. Visit smartskynetworks.com for more on how its 32 lb hardware system does some seriously heavy lifting for your connectivity needs.