An antenna system for an aircraft, comprising one or more antennas configured and arranged on the aircraft to provide a downlink rate of at least one Gbps, the one or more antennas permitting a base cell tower placement with a diameter of at least 60 km, the one or more antennas being configured and arranged to support multiple data streams simultaneously, the one or more antennas supporting multiple polarizations, the one or more antennas having a high gain over most of a hemisphere around the one or more antennas of −85°≤θ≤85°, 0°≤φ≤360°.