Satellite communications company Hanwha Phasor and Lufthansa Technik have partnered to deliver advanced in-flight connectivity for commercial flights. A recently signed multi-year agreement will see Lufthansa Technik design, build and supply several hundred fuselage-mounted airborne Satellite Communications (SatCom) radomes for Hanwha Phasor each year.
The radomes play a crucial role in the aircraft integration as they act as outer shells to cover and protect the antenna atop the fuselage while being transparent to radio frequencies (RF) and having negligible impact on the aircraft’s aerodynamics. This will enable the product’s use on aircraft across the globe and ensure airlines can deliver high bandwidth connectivity for their customers, allowing the potential for video calls, movie streaming and other online communication in-flight. Already in the final design phase, first radome prototypes could be built as early as this coming summer, with series production set to commence in 2025.
Bringing in its decades-long expertise in design and certification, Lufthansa Technik’s new radome development will pay special attention to Hanwha Phasor’s advanced electronically steered antenna technology, for example by employing entirely new composite material combinations and novel design methods that are set to ultimately result in one of the world’s first aviation-certified radome design solutions for this new type of antennas.
The partnership signifies a key milestone for Hanwha Phasor, which is poised to bring its aerospace solution, the Phasor A7700, to the market in 2025. The collaboration with Lufthansa Technik follows several key recent announcements from Hanwha Phasor, each signalling an important step to market for its satellite communications solutions. This includes a User Terminal Development Agreement with OneWeb, a global Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation, which will see the business working towards becoming a terminal on the network over the coming year.
Lufthansa Technik moreover aims to contribute its know-how on aircraft integration, and also its extensive production capabilities in the renowned composite material workshop at its Hamburg headquarters. To cope with growing needs that could arise from further intensified future collaboration between the two parties, the facility even provides opportunity to significantly expand its annual output. Alongside this, the agreement will explore further opportunities to collaborate, streamlining aircraft integration to ensure future non-disrupted communications for users on-the-move.
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