A few years ago it was unthinkable that areas with difficult access or rural areas could enjoy a decent Internet connection, but this has begun to change. One of the main responsible for this is Elon Musk and his Starlink , a system that uses satellites to provide connection and that could very soon even reach airplanes.
The SpaceX company that Musk himself founded has as its main objective the development and manufacture of space vehicles, but its ambition does not end there. The Starlink system intends, as we have said, to bring the Internet to areas that it is impossible for them to achieve in any other way. This service is not cheap, but the truth is that it offers impressive results, taking you practically anywhere with very little latency. Although this use is more in demand, it may not take us long to see its services on planes.
Delta airlines first to test Starlink
The American airline Delta is one of the largest that we can see in the world, and that in fact offers flights to more than 300 destinations located in 60 countries. The interest of this to offer Internet connection on its flights is nothing new, and in fact in 2018 its executive director, Ed Bastian , already issued some statements in which he commented that the Internet should be free on all commercial flights .
A Delta airline plane.
There are already many airlines that offer this service on all their flights (as is the case with Iberia), and in fact Delta itself has been offering WiFi on more than 300 planes since 2022, in fact obtained via satellite and at a cost for the passenger of 5 dollars. Although at first the company has been reluctant to talk about its association with Elon Musk and his Starlink, Ed Bastian himself has commented to the prestigious newspaper The Wall Street Journal that the first tests of this satellite Internet service have already been carried out. produced on their aircraft .
Starlink aims to reach all types of vehicles
That Elon Musk is not a conformist person is something in the public domain. The businessman has explained on many occasions his great ambitions, both with SpaceX and with Starlink, so it should not surprise us that his plans include bringing his product to as many people as possible . The possibilities of satellite Internet are almost endless, so it is not surprising that it does not take us long to see how something “normal” becomes.
Musk himself already warned us a few months ago that his company’s efforts were focused on obtaining the necessary certification to be used in both 737 and A320 aircraft, which would bring its use to practically all commercial aircraft. However, the thing does not seem to stop there, and that is that Starlink filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to be able to connect all types of moving vehicles , not only airplanes, but also ships and large trucks.