A320 question

[lijk604]

Hey guys. I was looking through the pictures from PHL this past weekend and noticed something odd on a US A320. Can anyone identify what it is? It was not on the ex-America West A320 that departed just a few planes ahead of it. Here are closeups of the two aircraft...any ideas?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8397/8678866127_ea47780873_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnklos/8678866127/)
A320 thing (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnklos/8678866127/) by lijk604 (http://www.flickr.com/people/johnklos/), on Flickr

[threeholerglory]

i can tell you what it's not....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaTO8_KNcuo

[moose135]

It may be a toomah...I have photos of N109UW from last April/May in CLT, and it is noticeably absent. Looking at N118US, another A320 I shot this past Tuesday evening, the growth does appear on the starboard side - sorry, no photo of the port side. It doesn't appear as if there is an opening at the front, as if it were a scoop. I'll have to look at some other A320 shots I have to see if they have this as well. http://www.moose135photography.com/photos/i-9KdkNj7/0/X3/i-9KdkNj7-X3.jpg

N110UW has it, and it's clearly not a scoop...

http://www.moose135photography.com/photos/i-SHpfRvW/0/X3/i-SHpfRvW-X3.jpg

But N128UW doesn't. Looks like something that was added on at some point.

[heeshung]

It's a Comant/Comdat GPS antenna retrofitted on aircraft with Gogo Wi-Fi. Gogo relies on three antennas, two ATG on the bottom of the plane, and one GPS antenna, either on the side or the top.

http://sarasotaavionics.com/images/productimages/COMANT/CI428200.jpg

The A319 I got yesterday also had it installed.
http://horriblephotography.com/albums/ALB 4-23-13/IMG_3307ps2.jpg (http://horriblephotography.com/albums/ALB%204-23-13/IMG_3307ps2.jpg)

[Cary]

Yup, I just noticed these earlier this month, while drawing illustrations of US Airways A319s. I was looking at my reference pictures of the Eagles logojet, and noticed the white attachment in newer photos of it (easily stood out against the green fuselage), whereas my photo from late December didn't have it. Came across this page: http://www.usairways.com/en-US/traveltools/intheair/wifi.html?c=glam_00697&re=1 and figured it was for wi-fi.

[lijk604]

Ah, yes, the wi-fi antenna. Guess after seeing all those humps on the SWA 737's I expected something along those lines.
Thanks guys!