Patent ID: 8676192

Claim:
A method for ground to air communication with an aircraft equipped with a multi-beam aircraft array antenna, comprising: receiving a first pilot signal on a first wide beam from a first ground base station of a network by a first antenna element of the aircraft antenna array, the first antenna element covering a first range of azimuth angles from the aircraft; receiving data on a directed data beam from the first ground base station by the first antenna element; receiving at least one second pilot signal on a second wide beam from at least one second ground base station of the network by a second antenna element of the aircraft antenna array covering a second range of azimuth angles from the aircraft different than the first range of azimuth angles; comparing a signal strength of the at least one second pilot signal with a signal strength of the first pilot signal; switching reception of the data from the first antenna element to the second antenna element, in response to determining that signal strength of the second pilot signal received by the second antenna element is greater than the signal strength of the first pilot signal received on the first antenna element; forming a directed pilot beam with phased array techniques to combine radiation patterns of the plurality of the antenna elements; and scanning a range of azimuth angles with the directed pilot beam for a strongest pilot signal.