An aircraft comprising: a fuselage; wings (232, 234) coupled to the fuselage; a transceiver; a feeder link antenna; a flight controller; a communications controller coupled to the transceiver, the communications controller comprising a beam former; and a plurality of planar phased array antennas (106, 132, 134, 210-218, 262) coupled to the transceiver and fixedly attached to the fuselage or at least one of the wings, the plurality of planar phased array antennas including a first planar phased array antenna (132, 210-218) having a first normal vector (220-228, 264) and a second planar phased array antenna (134, 210-218) having a second normal vector (222-228, 264), wherein the first normal vector is not parallel to the second normal vector; wherein the first planar phased antenna is configured to receive a first signal corresponding to a first communication uplink, and wherein the second planar phased array antenna is configured to transmit a second signal corresponding to a first communication downlink; and the transceiver is coupled to the feeder link antenna, the feeder link antenna configured to receive flight path data associated with a flight path and service coverage data associated with the flight path data via a second communication uplink, wherein the flight controller is configured to receive the flight path data via the feeder link antenna and to operate the aircraft based on the flight path data; and wherein the beam former is configured to determine beamforming weights for each element of each phased array antenna of the plurality of phased array antennas based at least in part on the service coverage data associated with the flight path data. a fuselage; wings (232, 234) coupled to the fuselage; a transceiver; a feeder link antenna; a flight controller; a communications controller coupled to the transceiver, the communications controller comprising a beam former; and a plurality of planar phased array antennas (106, 132, 134, 210-218, 262) coupled to the transceiver and fixedly attached to the fuselage or at least one of the wings, the plurality of planar phased array antennas including a first planar phased array antenna (132, 210-218) having a first normal vector (220-228, 264) and a second planar phased array antenna (134, 210-218) having a second normal vector (222-228, 264), wherein the first normal vector is not parallel to the second normal vector; wherein the first planar phased antenna is configured to receive a first signal corresponding to a first communication uplink, and wherein the second planar phased array antenna is configured to transmit a second signal corresponding to a first communication downlink; and the transceiver is coupled to the feeder link antenna, the feeder link antenna configured to receive flight path data associated with a flight path and service coverage data associated with the flight path data via a second communication uplink, wherein the flight controller is configured to receive the flight path data via the feeder link antenna and to operate the aircraft based on the flight path data; and wherein the beam former is configured to determine beamforming weights for each element of each phased array antenna of the plurality of phased array antennas based at least in part on the service coverage data associated with the flight path data.