Airbus and VDL Group are partnering to develop and manufacture UltraAir, a laser communication terminal for aircraft. (Photo: Airbus)

While the aviation industry has maintained a consistent focus on the creation and implementation of new aircraft designs, other advancements in the industry are promising to bring great value to the aviation world. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and high-tech Dutch producer VDL Group have just announced a partnership to design and build UltraAir, a laser communication terminal. With the support of development from Airbus and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the organizations hope to have a prototype and a first flight test completed by sometime next year.

UltraAir is a laser communication terminal with improved capabilities that make the more efficient transfer of data and information possible. Airbus has been developing the system since April of 2021 and has designed it to utilize laser links between a set of satellites in orbit and terminals on the ground equipped with a precise optical mechatronic system. 

“Laser communication technologies are the next revolution in satellite communications (satcom).” (Photo: European Space Agency)

UltraAir promises to address many of the challenges the use of radio frequency bands for communications present by having improved anti-jamming, a lower chance of interception and secure data transfers of 1.8Gbit/s. Additionally, it will allow the sharing of larger…