SmartSky Networks announced that it has been granted Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) #ST04610CH from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for installation of its Flagship system on a Dassault Falcon 2000EX business jet. The work was done by hardware sales and installation partner West Star Aviation at their Grand Junction facility. Liberty Partners provided engineering support, commencing the project on Feb. 3. The aircraft arrived for service at West Star in March, with the first-of-type installation and unrelated planned maintenance completed in just over a month, followed by a return-to-service in mid-April. The FAA supplemental type certificate was granted on April 28, representing less than three months from start to finish for the entire project.
"SmartSky was a great company to work with on this STC effort. The coordination between West Star, SmartSky and Liberty partners was excellent, and we are pleased to be part of enabling all Falcon 2000 series aircraft models to upgrade to SmartSky's groundbreaking new technology. Its high bandwidth and low latency performance enables continuous data transfer to and from the aircraft powering inflight use of demanding applications like livestreaming, videoconferencing and even gaming. This is the kind of performance our customers demand from their connectivity, and we look forward to installing more of the SmartSky systems," said Aaron Berg, Avionics Technical Sales Manager for West Star Aviation.
SmartSky's industry leading two-way data flow was on full display upon the jet's return to service flight from Colorado to the Bahamas, where nearly 7 GB of data was used in just over three hours, with more than 3 GB of data downloaded onto the aircraft and nearly 4 GB of data uploaded off the aircraft. SmartSky is the only aviation network that offers a symmetrical, two-way data link, and in the case of this flight, a remarkable 55% of the data used was sent off the plane.
The Falcon 2000 series, with nearly 450 aircraft in service, joins a growing list of aircraft types that have already been granted STCs for SmartSky's patented ATG connectivity service, making its high-performance network available to more aircraft that need secure, uninterrupted connectivity.
"West Star Aviation is a fantastic partner. Their ability to provide a flawless installation, while minimizing downtime, enabled an extremely quick issuance of the STC from the FAA. We know Falcon 2000 owners, operators, pilots, and passengers are going to love having this level of connectivity on their aircraft. With this first install under their belt, we look forward to more and faster installations with West Star in the future," said Chris Buff, MRO Account Management for SmartSky Networks.
Along with this STC for a Dassault-produced aircraft, SmartSky has already been awarded STCs for more than a dozen models from major manufacturers such as Textron Aviation, Gulfstream Aerospace, Bombardier, Embraer, and Dassault, with several more in progress and being scheduled. View the list of available STCs at smartskynetworks.com/connectivity.
