Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) Release 12 allows direct communication among User Equipments (UEs). This is called Proximity Services (ProSe) or Device-to-Device (D2D) communication providing increased spectral efficiency and lower packet latency. As a drawback, interference aware scheduling for D2D communication is even more challenging than for a reuse-1LTE-A scenario.

In this paper we formulate and solve the optimization problem to maximise spectral efficiency in a LTE-A D2D system. We present transmission of aircraft black box data as a possible application making use of such a system in an environment with relatively stable radio channel conditions regarding fast-fading and shadowing. Our simulation results show that LTE-A D2D communication in aviation is possible and spectral efficiencies of 4 bit/(s.Hz) can be achieved.