Mobile Connectivity

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave L-3 Communications [LLL] a contract to assess its second generation Civil Aircraft Protection System (CAPS2) for the protection of commercial aircraft from man-portable air defense systems (Manpads). This is an aircraft-mounted infrared decoy-dispensing system. Other firms make different aircraft-mounted systems, while still other systems would be installed on...

Ryanair and Onair announced Aug. 30 a deal calling for Ryanair’s entire fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft to be fitted with Onair’s onboard mobile-communications product. The Mobile Onair allows passengers to make and receive calls, exchange text messages and connect to e-mail via satellite broadband links and a ground network to be supplied by Onair’s...

Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] is proposing a ground-based system to protect airliners from terrorist missiles fired near airports, the company announced. While Northrop has designed an aircraft-based anti-missile system, some airlines have protested that installing the systems on the thousands of airliners flown each day would be expensive, at a time when the airlines are...

United Airlines will add up to 19 channels provided by XM Satellite Radio to the airline’s in-flight entertainment offerings, United announced March 2. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. XM also has deals with Airtran and Jetblue.

Qatar Airways announced June 19 it would be the first international airline to install live onboard satellite television as part of a $100 million agreement with Lufthansa Technik. The service will be introduced on Qatar Airway’s long-haul fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft by the end of the year. Lufthansa Technik will install Rockwell Collins’ Tailwind...

Qatar Airways announced June 19 it would be the first international airline to install live onboard satellite television as part of a $100 million agreement with Lufthansa Technik. The service will be introduced on Qatar Airway’s long-haul fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft by the end of the year. Lufthansa Technik will install Rockwell Collins’ Tailwind...

Connexion by Boeing signed an agreement with its first ever maritime customer and added another airline to its satellite Internet service, the business unit of Boeing announced. Teekay Shipping Corp. will be the launch customer for Connexion’s maritime service, which allows vessels to receive high-speed communications via satellite. The agreement calls for Teekay to install...

Connexion by Boeing signed an agreement with its first ever maritime customer and added another airline to its satellite Internet service, the business unit of Boeing announced. Teekay Shipping Corp. will be the launch customer for Connexion’s maritime service, which allows vessels to receive high-speed communications via satellite. The agreement calls for Teekay to install...

A system that would allow airline passengers to use GSM wireless phones moved a step closer to reality last week when Arinc and Telenor, two companies partnered to deploy such technology, unveiled the name for its in-flight cell phone service and announced a pair of hardware manufacturing partners. The companies named the new service AeroMobile....