Posted by John McHale
CRAWLEY, England 24 Nov. 2010. Thales UK announced the certification of its multi-service TopFlight satellite communication (SATCOM) system on the Boeing Next-Generation 737 and 777 passenger aircraft, after completing flight tests with Boeing. The Thales TopFlight SATCOM is the first ARINC 781 SwiftBroadband-enabled SATCOM capable of simultaneous flight deck and cabin communications certified for production installation on the Next-Generation 737 and 777.The TopFlight SATCOM provides a dedicated channel for Inmarsat Classic flight deck voice and data and another channel of SwiftBroadband for non-critical flight deck voice, Boeing electronic flight bag and cabin applications. The technology originates from Thales UK's facility in Crawley, England."Being first to market for this new technology on both the 777 and next-generation 737 is really important to us," says Peter Hitchcock, head of Thales UK's avionics business. Over 20 airlines have already selected Topflight Satcom and now that we have passed these milestones with Boeing we will be able to bring its benefits to even more operators."Not only does this have huge benefits in terms of weight/drag reduction, but the ability to bring SwiftBroadband into the cockpit as well as the cabin allows operators to access dramatically lower data transmission costs and faster speeds," he continues. "We expect this to drive demand in the same way that connected IFE and Wi-Fi/GSM systems are doing in the cabin."
