Western Aircraft Partners With Gogo Business Aviation To Develop STCs For Gogo 4G Service

As Gogo Business Aviation continues toward its scheduled launch of its 4G service in the first half of 2017, Western Aircraft, a Greenwich AeroGroup company is currently developing Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) for the new system.

Western Aircraft is an authorized full-service maintenance, repair and overhaul Gogo dealer. It will develop STCs for Gogo’s 4G system for Dassault Falcon 2000 series aircraft, and will participate as a partner for hardware sales and installations on other business aircraft.

"The new Gogo 4G system is something our operators are excited to add to their aircraft," said Austin Shontz, vice president and general manager for Western Aircraft. "Our experienced avionics technicians are experts in Gogo's system installations and they are ready for the next step with 4G. We're excited to certify the new system when it's ready to launch in the coming months."

Gogo will deliver a 4G experience with reliable connectivity for passengers over existing technologies. The new service will include services such as Gogo Vision, providing the latest movies and TV episodes, flight tracker, weather reports, and additional features; Gogo Text & Talk, allowing passengers to call and text with their personal smart phones and mobile numbers; streaming video and audio; as well as face-to-face conversations with a user’s favorite applications; email with attachments; and web browsing – on a proven network in the continental U.S. and large portions of Alaska and Canada.

“Western Aircraft remains one of Gogo’s trusted partners with expertise and a long-standing reputation of delivering great service to its clients,” said Andy Geist, senior vice president of business aviation solutions for Gogo. “As we progress toward the launch of the Gogo 4G service in 2017, and our next generation network in 2018, partners like Western Aircraft are crucial to ensuring our customers will have our service and experience to bring the system to the market.”

Created specifically for the business aviation market, Gogo’s 4G system is a specially designed application of Gogo’s air-to-ground technology that leverages its existing ground network of more than 250 towers, fiber backhaul and technology that has already flown hundreds of thousands of hours aboard thousands of business and commercial aircraft. The 4G equipment package will incorporate dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi service and a host of other features – all from a single, lightweight box.