Hey murderofcrows,Compliments of the season.'Satellite airtime...

Hey murderofcrows,

Compliments of the season.

'Satellite airtime has been a priority this quarter with ongoing trials for Inmarsat over Cobham’s AVIATOR UAV 200 onboard Harvest and Omnidrone UAVs.'

Further to you post on 29 September (which for some reason I cannot reply to) highlighting the collaboration between Harvest, OmniDrone and Cobham, thought this new release from Inmarsat was of interest. I'll put up the TWTR link following, as HC won't allow posting links + commentary.

It's only speculation, but it's hard to imagine Harvest not being involved. Led by Jesse Kallman, Xwing’s Vice President of Commercialisation and Strategy, Xwing are world leaders in UAV's. Not just drones but unmanned aircraft for cargo and passengers:

'When Kallman joined Xwing from Airbus earlier this year, one of his primary objectives was finding a satcom partner. Previously, the company had undertaken test flights that had been conducted on terrestrial connectivity networks, which were fine for flying around airports. But to fully realise Xwing’s vision of autonomous aviation, satcom is a must.

'Kallman spoke to some of his former colleagues at Airbus and Inmarsat, and in particular, our Senior Director Commercial UAV & UTM, Anthony Spouncer, kept getting mentioned. In May, the first discussions between Xwing and Inmarsat began. Within a month, Xwing had the prototype hardware, began integration and started testing – a testament to the speed of operation that has come to define the UAV space.

'It has also tested another of our partner’s hardware: Cobham’s AVIATOR UAV 200, an airborne terminal that allows for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

“We’ve flown both on the aircraft,” Kallman explains. “We’ve actively controlled the aircraft over Inmarsat’s satellite network, and tested Cobham hardware.”

https://www.inmarsat.com/en/insights/aviation/2021/reliable-robust-satcom-critical-unlocking-autonomous-aviation.html