In the News

Final Flight Test Update on Ellipse Direct

September 21, 2007 - The Ellipse Direct TV satellite antenna engineering package will be complete and submitted to the FAA for final approvals during the week of 9/24/07. The "last piece of the puzzle" is a final flight check, which will be accomplished within 30 days. After the flight, we will have completed the STC process and will be awaiting final certification.

The Maintenance Group in Atlanta (770-454-9210) will have an STC that covers the Challenger CL600, 601, 604 and RJ. STCs to cover Gulfstream, Citation, Hawker, Learjet and King Air aircraft will follow.

Please visit the Flight Display Systems TV web site at www.EllipseDirect.com to view a presentation on the system.

We will have the radome and antenna in NBAA booth #3047. Ask to speak to Jay Healey.

 

Previous News Update from Jay Healey on Ellipse Direct

April 12, 2006 – Ellipse Direct, our airborne satellite DirecTV system with an equipment list price of less than $100k, is getting closer to certification.

The initial certification aircraft is a Challenger CL600.

We are in the process of completing the final ground test open issues addressed in an FAA issue paper. The two remaining tests are an actual bird strike test, which is scheduled. The second is an engine imbalance test. The engine imbalance test is for a fan blade failure in a windmilling condition. Once the engine imbalance test procedure is approved by the FAA, we will schedule the test. The FAA has indicated that once these tests are successfully completed, all of the STC test criteria will be complete.

The good news is once the Challenger certification is complete, The Maintenance Group in Atlanta (770-454-9210) will have an STC that covers the Challenger CL600, 601, 604 and RJ. The Maintenance Group did this installation in conjunction with a complete interior refurbishment.

The Maintenance Group has also completed a full Flight Display Systems in-flight entertainment installation on a Citation 650, including Ellipse Direct. The TV radome was not installed. Currently, The Maintenance Group is completing a Flight Display Systems in-flight entertainment installation on a Hawker 800, including Ellipse Direct. When the Challenger certification is complete, the Citation 650 and the HS800 will return for Radome installation and flight testing. The STC will cover the entire 650 line as well as the HS700 and HS800.

Once the Challenger STC is complete, the following STC aircraft approvals will be much easier and take less time. We have the following aircraft currently scheduled for TV installations:

  • Gulfstream III - This will provide The Maintenance Group with an STC that covers the GII, III, IV and IVSP.
  • Gulfstream 200

We are also talking with possible launch customers for the Lear 55, 60, PC-12, Beechjet and Citation II aircraft.

The bottom line is that once the Challenger STC is complete, the flood gates will open and the certification process will become much easier.

Thank you for your patience. The wait will not be much longer.


Jay Healey
VP Satellite Systems
Flight Display Systems
jay@ellipsedirect.com
Work 702-361-0958
Cell 702-858-3667
Fax 702-361-7620
www.ellipsedirect.com
www.flightdisplay.com

EllipseDirect: Flying saucer promises revolution in inflight TV costs

December 7, 2005 – A NEW inflight television product based on a $3,000 off-the-shelf antenna developed originally for use on sports utility vehicles could be available to corporate aircraft operators from next spring.

Jay Healey, VP satellite systems for Georgia-based IFE equipment supplier Flight Display Systems, expects the first fully certificated EllipseDirect hardware to ship by next March. "The FAA has approved our procedures and we expect to complete our final flight testing in mid-February," he says. "The FAA has indicated that once this is done no further tests will be needed and our first supplemental type certificate – for the Bombardier Challenger CL-600, 601, 604 and Regional Jet – will be issued."

The Maintenance Group, of Atlanta, Georgia, is responsible for all EllipseDirect certification work and will own all the STCs. Besides the Bombardier types, installations are being developed for the Cessna Citation III and 650, Gulfstream II, III, IV and IVSP, and Pilatus PC-12 turboprop. Healy says that Flight Display Systems currently holds orders for about seven installations. "Other operators are interested but they want us to complete certification before they commit," says Healey.

Based on a 16,000-production-run unit that Rhode Island-headquartered KVH Industries developed to bring direct-broadcast TV to recreational vehicles in North America, the mechanically steered phased array has been repackaged in an AWACS-style saucer radome for pylon mounting on the upper fuselage of a wide variety of aircraft, ranging from the PC-12 corporate up to narrow-body airliners.

First publicised at the 2004 NBAA show in Las Vegas and presented in detail at this year's event in Orlando, EllipseDirect is a reflection of Flight Display Systems' philosophy of adapting the best off-the-shelf technology to drive down prices while maintaining quality of performance. In EllipseDirect this approach is expected to result in an installed price of less than $100,000, compared with several times that figure for competing systems.

The unique EllipseDirect installation – the only other examples of this approach are to be found on military airborne early-warning and control aircraft like the US AWACS – is a result of the 24in-equivalent diameter of the original KVH vehicle antenna. "That was far too big to fit on the fintop, where inflight TV antennas are conventionally located," explains Healey. "So we decided to think out of the box and came up with our pylon-mounted saucer."

Thoroughly computer-simulated before going to hardware, the installation features a 10in clearance between the lower surface of the radome and the upper skin of the aircraft. "Any less than that and we ran into unacceptable noise, lift and drag," Healey explains.

Healey admits that this novel solution has led to a protracted certification programme, with work first starting over a year ago. "It's radically different from a normal installation and we have had to do a lot of testing to convince the FAA. We've had no problems but it has been a lengthy learning curve, with the FAA continually coming up with new questions."

But it also means that inflight TV can now go into aircraft smaller than the Bombardiers and Gulfstreams, which have hitherto represented the lower limit in aircraft size. "With a system cost of less than $100,000, operators of the smaller corporate types will see inflight TV making sense."

Another strength of the installation, Healey says, is the ease with which a defective unit could be changed on the ramp. "It's matter of removing 18 screws to lift out the upper surface of the radome, then swapping out the antenna unit. The job can be done in less than 40 minutes."

Flight Display Systems also plans to address the North American air transport market, working through experienced airline systems integrators. "A few operators in North America have gone for LiveTV, but it's quite expensive," says Healey. "We believe that because our product it so much cheaper, doesn't require a GPS interface and is easily installed, there is a big market for it in commercial aviation. Ultimately, we hope that the integrators will see an opportunity in combining our antenna and systems box with their own switching and interfacing inside the aircraft."

The company is looking too at the possible use of the radome as the basis of other capabilities such as broadband data connectivity and international inflight TV. "We're talking with other SUV-market antenna vendors about the practicability of getting their systems into our radome. Essentially, we are certificating a new platform that will be able to host other capabilities in the future."

Related Documents


December 15th
Flight Test Report

This flight test repeated several flight test cards from the previous flights to correct certain test points for weight and center of gravity locations. All test points with the antenna installed were accomplished satisfactorily; no adverse effects were observed at any test point. All stalls, both straight ahead and turning, were accomplished in accordance FAR 25. Positive nosedown pitching moment was observed in all stalls and there was no tendency for roll-off or natural.
 


September 25th
Flight Test Report

"Dive speed was attained (0.861 Mach @ 31,500' PA and 390 KIAS @ 21,500' PA); no perceptible buffering was observed and no excessive vibrations were felt up to and including dive speed. Handling qualities were not degraded in any way in any configuration; positive control was maintained in all axes throughout the envelope; and the aircraft remained stable in all axes."
 


David Gray, President of Flight Display Systems, holds a conforming tool designed by Robert Evans Company as part of the engineering initiative to bring the Ellipse Direct TV product to the marketplace. In the background, on top of a Challenger aircraft, is the new Ellipse Direct antenna installation, a phased array antenna designed to track and lock onto the DIRECTV signal in-flight. Ellipse Direct is the most affordable DIRECTV system at $99,650 for system hardware, about one-third the cost of competitive hardware. It can be installed on practically any business class aircraft.
Download JPG file, 337KB 72DPI

September 2, 2004

Upstart Company Unveils $100,000 Airborne TV System
Flight Display Systems of Alpharetta, Ga., yesterday took the wraps off an all-new in-flight satellite TV system for business airplanes, called Ellipse Direct, that the company said will sell for one-third the price of competing airborne satellite-direct receiving equipment. The heart of the DirecTV-based system is a unique phased-array antenna originally developed for yachts and high-end mobile homes. FDS and its project partners have modified the mechanically steered antenna to fit airplane fuselages by placing it in a radome that sits on four aluminum stilts in a configuration not unlike that used by military AWACS aircraft. Performance penalties are expected to be comparable to those of conventional radomes, according to FDS, which is partnering with two companies: The Maintenance Group of Atlanta to certify the system and DAC International to distribute it. The antenna is manufactured by KVH Industries. The first STCs for the sub-$100,000 system (not including installation) will be in the Challenger and Gulfstream series, with STCs to follow soon after in Hawkers, Learjets, Citations and at least one turboprop, according to FDS. The company plans to show the antenna at next month's NBAA Convention in Las Vegas.

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