Gogo Business Aviation is conducting virtual flight simulation testing of its 5G software and expects to deliver Gogo 5G later this year.

Utilising an advanced virtual flight simulator constructed by its radio frequency engineering team, Gogo is emulating the radio channel in the airborne environment to verify the Gogo 5G software to a more than 90 per cent confidence level. The technology enables end-to-end 5G system testing ahead of schedule and helps to mature the software at a faster pace before flight testing begins.

By leveraging proprietary information and flight data, Gogo can check performance of the radio frequency, taking into consideration factors like doppler, altitude, flight routes, angle of approach, beam-forming technology and other parameters, all critical factors to understand as Gogo optimises the 5G service and onboard connectivity performance.

"The virtual flight simulator our team has constructed is an example of what we do best: innovate," says president and COO Sergio Aguirre. "Our teams have designed a phenomenal method for validating and maturing our 5G software and hardware to a critical degree before the final 5G chip is in our hands."

Once lab testing is completed, the 5G software will be flight tested using Gogo's Challenger 300 testbed and the already-deployed Gogo 5G network.