Flight trial demonstration of seamless aeronautical networking

This article presents the in-flight demonstration of a new integrated aircraft communications system combining legacy and future radio technologies. This system, developed and validated under real environmental conditions during flight trials, integrates all the aeronautical service domains within a common IPv6-based aeronautical network. The flight trials were held within the framework of the European SANDRA project at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, in June 2013. The presented outcomes emphasize the flexibility and scalability of the developed network and demonstrate the seamless service coverage of the given architecture across different airspace domains.