Inmarsat receives STC for Jet ConneX WiFi for Gulfstream G550

Inmarsat has received an STC for its Jet ConneX business aviation inflight WiFi service for Gulfstream G550 aircraft.

The certificate, awarded by the US FAA, approves Gulfstream G550 business jets to be equipped with the JetWave antenna and terminal, produced by Inmarsat partner Honeywell.

Following more than a year of investment in development and testing, initial installations on G550 aircraft are now underway. Gulfstream, in cooperation with Inmarsat and Honeywell, is currently conducting in-service evaluation and final terminal Type Approval activities.

“The Gulfstream G550 community has been eagerly awaiting this Jet ConneX installation approval and has told us about their desire to have a powerful global high-speed WiFi solution for their principals.”

Kurt Weidemeyer, vice president of business aviation at Inmarsat, said: “The Gulfstream G550 community has been eagerly awaiting this Jet ConneX installation approval and has told us about their desire to have a powerful global high-speed WiFi solution for their principals. Many are heavy users of Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband solution and are happy with the service reliability but are now looking to upgrade to a next-generation network that is fast enough to handle the demands of today’s applications.”

Honeywell is the exclusive provider of JetWave hardware and played an integral role in supporting the Gulfstream G550 STC.

Warren Nechtman, vice president of connected aircraft systems at Honeywell, added: “Honeywell worked closely with Gulfstream to successfully integrate the JetWave hardware into the existing G550 architecture. However the real credit goes to the Gulfstream team who worked expeditiously to bring Jet ConneX to their customers. They did it in record time.”