Predictive beamforming antenna and method of controlling same

An apparatus comprising:

• a predictive calculator processing unit comprising a processor, a memory, and a transceiver, the predictive calculator processing unit configured to receive position information of one or more airborne receivers, determine future position information of the one or more airborne receivers as a function of time based on the received position information, and determine beamforming antenna parameters;
• an antenna instruction processing unit to receive the beamforming antenna parameters and generate beamforming instructions based on the beamforming antenna parameters;
• a beamforming antenna to receive the beamforming instructions, and to generate a beam at a specified time based on the beamforming instructions to enable communication with at least one of the one or more airborne receivers;
• a receiver to receive airborne receiver data from the at least one of the one or more airborne receivers, and generate output data based on the airborne receiver data;
• and
• a signal gap processing unit to determine a time difference between first airborne receiver data received at a first time and second airborne receiver data received at a second time, and to modify the output data based on the time difference.