Berlin, June 28, 2007 -- Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS announced that a real-time laser optical link was demonstrated live at the Paris Le Bourget airshow on the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (DGA) stand. The link (LOLA), via an airborne Mystère 20 aircraft in the south of France and a geostationary satellite, is making it possible to achieve two-way communication between Le Bourget and the aircraft. The team on the DGA stand was in permanent contact with the flight crew. Exceptionally clear footage of the cabin and countryside below is being shown on screens on the stand, proving the operational performance of this kind of laser optical link.

LOLA's success is the result of EADS Astrium Toulouse working together with Lumics and numerous other companies and agencies.
Last December, in a world first, Astrium achieved two-way laser optical links between a Mystère 20 aircraft, provided by the French Procurement Agency's Flight Test Centre at Istres, and the Artemis communications satellite. In early 2007 the Thales Alenia Space communications chain was integrated in the system, which for the first time enabled audio and video data communication to occur in real-time, between the aircraft and the ground, via the Artemis geostationary satellite.
LOLA was made technically possible by Astrium designing and building an optical terminal which serves as a precursor to the future drone system. A number of technical innovations have been introduced on LOLA, that have enabled Astrium to demonstrate exceptional system performance in an aeronautical environment:
* Flawless 50 megabits/s transmission
* Link acquisition in under a second
* Pointing with an accuracy of better than 1 microradian (the equivalent of pin-pointing a person in Moscow all the way from the Paris airshow) Following on from the SILEX program, LOLA's success proves that optical link technology is mature and that an operational optical communications system of up to 1 gigabit per second is possible today, using existing technology.

About Lumics
Lumics GmbH, based in Berlin, Germany is specialized in fiber coupled laser devices. The product range includes fiber coupled modules in 14-pin BTF, Mini DIL and TO220 designs and laser systems for the use in optical communication networks, analytical instruments and industrial laser applications. The company is specialized in development and production of laser devices in the range from 800nm to 1080nm wavelength.

For more information please visit www.lumics.com.

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