Starlink for helicopters?

[mickjoebill]

Years ago we investigated phased array antennas on the tailboom as an alternative to microwave links in the boon docks.
The rotors did not have a serious effect on reception.
These guys have installed one of the new Starlink dishes which are designed for moving vehicles, in competitors vehicles in a desert rally.

The concept looks promising for rotary applications.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/446129073286883/permalink/820342655865521/?mibextid=Nif5oz

[rrekn]

Phase Array on the tail boom, interesting. How far did you get?

[mickjoebill]

Sorry for linking to a closed group.

I was drawn to a poster who says they made a ruggedised mount for the new High Performance In-Motion Dish and they tested "on a few racecars at the Baja 1000"
They live streamed video.

Wow.

This website has pictures of the Starlink high performance antenna on a race vehicle. They have commercialised the mounting fixture.
https://star-mountsystems.com/products/quick-release-mount-for-starlink-high-performance-in-motion-dish

In respect to a tail mount, having developed a derigable gimbal nosemount for the AS350, I was keen to investigate using BGAN to live link SD video in very remote areas. The idea was to make a flyaway kit of a bracket a gimbal and means to transmit.

From the engineering perspective, there were no impossible hurdles for completing a tail boom mount. However, the Starlink antenna is larger.

I haven't investigated how Starlink frequencies are effected by the rotors, but preliminary ground testing of a Starlink antenna under a rotor is a simple procedure.

In respect to live video, that is always a tall order, although there may be significant improvements in buffering which could mitigate dropout,
I'd be investigating a novel multiple antenna solution rather than a auto tracking self pointing antenna as exists for air to ground microwave links.

I dropped the BGAN idea as 4G was becoming more widespread and also flyaway sat kit was reducing in size, a Scandanavian broadcaster had adapted one to stow on back seat of a R44.

Phased array is in use on commercial passenger aircraft and Starlink is also entering the field.
https://www.starlink.com/aviation
​​​​

Mjb

[MikeNYC]

Bumping this thread as Starlink was recently flown on a few helicopters (AS350's and 355's) in support of filming. It appears to be the flat panel version mounted to the filming gimbal. Apparently it took coordination with Starlink to ease the speed restrictions with the service plan and hardware they had, but was otherwise successful.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/843x1131/img_8414_20a558ad83e316f2dfd871510dc612a6ecf67941.png

[retoocs]

One of the DERs we use is working on Starlink installation on commercial airlines.

[mickjoebill]

That mounting bracket is, quite appropriately, $$$