Calibration and element failure correction of an intra-flight antenna at K-band

For mobile broadband satellite communications steerable antennas with high gain are required. They can be steered mechanically, electronically or by the combination of these two possibilities. For aviation applications it is very important that the antennas have low profile. In the recent years, avionic satellite communications systems up to the Ku-band have been proposed [1], [2]. However, for broadband communications higher frequencies are required, since only at higher frequencies broad frequency bands for delivering high data rate are still available. Concepts of fully electronically steerable or hybrid (mechanical-electronic) antennas at Ka band have been already proposed, see e.g. [3],[4], but such antennas are very expensive and not all technological hurdles have been overcome yet. In contrast, adaptive antennas for communication between aircrafts (intra-flight) can have lower gain and therefore they can be produced with acceptable costs.