Airborne Internet

Connecting aircraft and people in transit

The Airborne Internet (AI) is about information connectivity. It is a concept that adopts modern network theory and principles into the transportation realm, creating a system in which aircraft and people in transit will be connected with a scalable, general purpose, and multi-application aviation data channel. The AI will bring Network-Enabled Operations (NEO) to aircraft in the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) .

Concept Evolution

The Airborne Internet has evolved from the concept of a broadband radio connection which would carry all communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) data for NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) program. The goal of SATS is to provide small aircraft with safe and affordable access to virtually any runway in the nation in most weather conditions, which would require a wide-bandwidth data channel to the aircraft.

During a SATS planning conference, Ralph Yost from the FAA Technical Center had the idea of treating aircraft connected with broadband radios as if they were nodes on a computer network, creating a client/server-based architecture to support collaborative Air Traffic Management. This idea was initially named the “NAS Net”, which stood for National Airspace System Network. In order to educate members of the aviation community about the advantages of an aircraft network, Ralph Yost wrote a white paper titled "Airplanes Can Be Networked".

The “Airborne Internet”

Dr. Bruce Holmes of NASA began to describe the NAS Net with the easier to understand term “Airborne Internet”, which led to the idea of using open standards and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Internet protocols. The Airborne Internet concept was also extended from pilots in the cockpit to passengers in the cabin—allowing people to be connected at all times, even while in transit.

During this time, the Airborne Internet Collaboration Group (AICG)—which was the precursor to the Airborne Internet Consortium—defined the AI as “a private, secure, and reliable peer-to-peer aircraft communications network that uses the same technologies as the commercial Internet.” The concept of a Collaborative Information Environment (CIE) was added to the Airborne Internet when members of the high-tech industry proposed using the lastest Internet protocols, known collectively as XML Web Services, to create a shared information space between aircraft and ground facilities.

More information about the development of the Airborne Internet is available on the AIC history page.