Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been a long time since flying was fun (unless you are reading this on the upper deck of a 747, of course). This week, however, things got a bit more bearable thanks to the FAA’s decision that airlines can now allow their passengers to keep their gadgets on – in airplane mode – during taxi, takeoff and landing. The first two airlines to actually put this into practice are Delta and JetBlue.

Both say that they have worked closely with the FAA to evaluate the impact of gate-to-gate personal electronics use and have completed testing to ensure that the use of personal electronic devices during all phases of flights is safe on its planes.

Other airlines will surely follow soon, but the fact that every airline has to go through testing and get FAA approval will lead to quite a bit of confusion. We’ll hear about irate passengers on United, American or Southwest who refuse to power down their electronics after the boarding door has closed. It’s also worth noting that for Delta, this new rule only applies to mainline flights. Passengers on Delta Connections flights, which are operated by a number of regional airlines, will still have to follow the old rules until at least the end of the year.

Under the FAA’s guidance, virtually all small, lightweight gadgets are classified as “personal electronic devices.” Laptops and anything larger than a tablet, however, still need to be stowed during taxi, takeoff and landing just like before. The same goes for gadgets that were previously banned from in-flight use, including e-cigarettes, televisions, and remote-control toys.

All of this doesn’t mean that in-flight Wi-Fi will now be available until the flight passes 10,000 feet, however. Gogo, which powers the vast majority of in-flight Wi-Fi in the U.S., is evaluating the possibility of allowing connections from gate-to-gate, but in its current form, the service simply doesn’t work under 10,000 feet.

The Air Line Pilots Association, by the way, says it supports the FAA’s decision and was involved in the FAA’s rulemaking process. The organization, however, notes that it believes that electronics should be stowed for takeoff and landing and that “relying on passengers to selectively turn off their devices in areas of extremely poor weather is not a practical solution.” Under the new FAA guidance, passengers will still have to turn their electronics off when low visibility requires the use of some landing systems.

In case you are confused about when and where exactly you can now play Dots on the plane, here is a chart from our friends at Delta:

It’s a small miracle that you can open up your laptop and surf the web while soaring through the air in a metal tube some seven miles above the ground, but the experience is inconsistent, and when it works, the connection is often frustratingly sluggish. That’s about to change.

Once focused on undercutting the competition, JetBlue is now best known for its in-flight product: complimentary snacks, 36 channels of free DirecTV and friendly flight attendants. This year, the airline is undergoing a service alteration of sorts. The traditionally all-coach carrier will soon cater to business travelers with a bed-equipped premium cabin, and by the end of next year, all customers will be able to surf the web from 36,000 feet with speeds that rival (or often exceed) what we’re used to on the ground. That new service, powered by ViaSat, is called Fly-Fi, and it’s hitting the skies this November.

We spent a day with JetBlue’s subsidiary, LiveTV, the company responsible for providing in-flight entertainment (IFE) on more than 600 aircraft, including 188 JetBlue planes and some 200 United 737s. If you’ve watched DirecTV while flying either of those airlines, it’s LiveTV that put it there, and soon, the Florida-based firm will be responsible for getting you online, too. Fly-Fi, and its to-be-named United equivalent, will deliver up to 12 Mbps of data — not to the aircraft, but to each and every passenger on board. Join us aboard JetBlue’s first Fly-Fi-equipped Airbus A320 after the break.%Gallery-slideshow90014%

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

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JetBlue has a new design scheme for their Airbus A321s, used on transcontinental flights. In addition to the usual 143 economy seats, these planes will have actual "class" seating for the first time with 16 business class seats and four business class "suites." Apparently Jetblue had to file a special request with the FAA for business class.

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Adding satellite WiFi to an airplane isn’t as simple as mounting an antenna up top and flipping the switch on a router — even installing a cockpit printer requires FAA approval, so as you can expect, the Federal Aviation Administration won’t check off on major modifications without some thorough testing. JetBlue’s new Fly-Fi service is well on its way to getting a formal green light, though, and is expected to launch before Q3 is through. This week, the carrier is running through a variety of flight tests with one of its Airbus A320s, including maneuvering the plane with some pretty unusual weight loads, such as the rear center of gravity positioning you can see demonstrated above. After that’s complete, it’s time to wait for FAA certification before moving onto performance testing, and if all goes well, passengers should expect to hook up to ViaSat-1 from 30,000 feet in mere months. Once Fly-Fi goes online, it’ll be by far the fastest commercial in-flight WiFi option — we really can’t wait!

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

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During an analyst event today, JetBlue shared some more details about its upcoming in-flight WiFi product. The service, which will be powered by ViaSat’s Exede, has been coined “Fly-Fi,” and the airline plans to begin rolling it out to its aircraft “soon.” JetBlue hasn’t presented a firm timeline, but says “Barring any setbacks during certification, we expect our first Wi-Fi-enabled flight with customers to take to the skies later this year.” That’s perhaps not as soon as you may have liked, but based on a speed demo (comparing Exede, Gogo, Row 44 and Panasonic’s offering), this new and improved solution will be worth the wait. Take a sneak peek in the comparison video after the break.

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Networking

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Source: JetBlue