Panasonic is one of a few companies who provide in-flight communication and entertainment.

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"While the suite of in-flight communication hardware that we plan to launch this year will include the ability to place and receive phone calls, whether or not we actually activate voice calling depends on passenger feedback, " said airline spokesperson James Boyd.

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"It was roughly a one hour flight, and the last communication from them was 30 minutes into the flight, " said Brian Thornton, a spokesman for Talbot Group, which is a major Sundance shareholder.

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Samara's effort to launch a third satellite over Latin America got him embroiled in a bitter fight with the U.S. Department of Defense and Boeing, which use the L-band for communication during flight tests.

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The remaining 15% of first-half sales came from the aviation segment, which offers a comprehensive line of panel-mounted and portable products, including completely integrated systems that deliver flight instrumentation, location, navigation, communication and identification data.

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The plan for the demonstration cargo flight calls for the Dragon to approach the station, go through a series of communication tests, then get the go-ahead for a rendezvous.

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As the passage implies, even something as seemingly simple as an airplane flying in the sky is actually just one part of a large sociotechnical system composed of various human and machine elements, from the pilot and airplane to a series of airports, communication and navigation systems, bureaucracies, regulations, rules and norms of flight, and more.

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