Sure. I run a small business (http://skitrails.info/) offering real-time GPS tracking of grooming equipment at ski resorts. The resorts use the data for operations management, and to prepare reports for public consumption (i.e. what's groomed).

I'm mostly using cellular/mobile vehicle trackers (of which there are hundreds of vendors), but for regions where there's no cell/mobile coverage, we fall back to satellite options. With lots of optimization, it's only slightly more expensive for our use-case.

Specifically, we deploy these units:

http://www.skywave.com/en/our-technology/satellite-cellular-...

which use the Inmarsat constellation. The specs probably aren't quite up to being attached directly to an airplane, but with the right housing and a heater, they're probably not far off.

The trick for finding robust off-the-shelf gear is to look for industries that operate in remote regions, like oil and gas, and maritime. They also have fairly harsh operating conditions, so equipment sold there is usually fairly tough.

Prices have really come down over the last 5 years.