I note with some trepidation that satellite video upload and download is coming to military aircraft. Aviation Week's Ares blog reports:
Today it is impossible to send videos or photos from an airborne platform via satellite. It is done by radio which limits the size of the file that can be sent. And so in a DGA (French procurement agency)-financed project, Thales Alenia Space and Thales Defence & Security C4I Systems Division have joined up to develop an airborne satcom for mission aircraft such as the A400M, the Atlantique 2 and AWACS.
. . .
The antenna is flat so can be put on the aircraft body. It measures 80 x 30 cm and will be able to handle 10 MB per second. It will be ready for flight trials in 2013. So perhaps we can expect videos of singing pilots on YouTube?
There's more at the link.
I can just see it:
- A Navy SEAL about to raid the home of Osama bin Laden's successor, calling his parents on his cellphone to say, "Look for me on this channel! Live action coming up!"
- A court-martial being convened for two overenthusiastic flight personnel who filmed themselves joining the Mile High Club, and posted the results on YouTube while still in the air.
- A mission commander walking down the aisle of an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, making sure that his controllers are on the job, only to find half of them watching the latest video coming in from some grunts on the ground a couple of hundred miles away.
This could lead to all sorts of problems . . . but also all sorts of fun!
Peter
2 comments:
Not saying a word... :-)
The first sentence is rubbish. How else does Predator video get back to the people who are controlling it? And a satellite link is nothing but a relayed radio signal.
Now if they mean video of the highest entertainment industry standard, well, then maybe today's satcom links will not do it. But the blog makes it sound impossible to send any still or moving images. It not only is possible, it is being done every day.
Bart Noir
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