Optical device research and development is crucial for the implementation of miniaturized wireless optical transmission systems that are capable of transmitting large amounts of data at fast speeds. This work presents the design and evaluation of an optical link for the inter-aircraft interconnects. At the transmitter, the vertically cavity surface emission laser (VCSEL) is used to generate a directly modulated non-return to zero (NRZ) signal. In the receiver, direct detection and Gaussian low-pass filtering are used. The system's performance is evaluated and compared with and without the use of filtration at the detector. BER, sensitivities, and data transmission capability are used to evaluate the performance of optical wireless systems using optisystem software. The range and data rate are enhanced 9-fold and 4-fold, respectively, in comparison to earlier schemes. The results presented show a transmission range of 750 km at a 23 Gbps data rate with a BER of 10-29.