Collins Aerospace Reaches Significant Milestone in its Iridium Certus Development

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Collins Aerospace has reached another critical milestone in the development of its higher bandwidth Iridium Certus® airborne satellite communications (SATCOM) system. Recently, Collins Aerospace was able to successfully connect and transmit data to an orbiting Iridium® satellite using the Iridium Certus service utilizing a High Gain Antenna (HGA). A similar transmission was recorded last August with Collins Aerospace’s new Active Low Gain Antenna (ALGA). This puts Collins Aerospace among the first to successfully connect with both its Iridium Certus systems. Collins Aerospace is a Raytheon Technologies business.

Collins Aerospace’s two SATCOM solutions, currently in development, will provide customers with faster speeds, lower weight and smaller antenna footprint than legacy SATCOM systems allowing for minimum drag and lower power usage. This will provide operators with additional options for use in both the cockpit for safety services and in the cabin for passenger entertainment. 

"This marks our second major milestone in our Iridium Certus development in only six months and is a testament to the hard work and expertise we have dedicated to the goal of bringing our customers the uninterrupted and secure data feeds they need to operate most efficiently,” said Leigh Parker, Vice President of Avionics Engineering for Collins Aerospace. “We are now one step closer to rolling out what we believe will be the premier seamless SATCOM experience.” 

Collins Aerospace’s solutions will be available to operators in 2022 and will include all airborne hardware for the new systems, including the Satcom Data Unit (SDU), SDU Configuration Module and the antennas — either ALGA or HGA — depending on the operator's bandwidth requirements.