On Friday, at 24,000 feet over the Irish Sea and travelling at 300 knots, the 20-year-old Boeing aeroplane in which New Scientist is flying experiences what many experts in radio interference might regard as a “nightmare scenario”.
Not only have the passengers been allowed to use cellphones in flight – not dreadful in itself perhaps – but the plane is stuffed with the latest technology, all potentially interfering with the plane’s electronics. Wi-Fi transmitters pepper the ceiling and live television and internet signals are being delivered through a 1-metre-wide satellite dish in the top of the plane.
Boeing was demonstrating two of the technologies it thinks will make flying more fun. The plane – Connexion One – is the company’s in-flight entertainment test aircraft, and New Scientist was hitching a ride.
Boeing's entertainment wish-list includes a technology it began rolling out to airlines on Friday: delivering live satellite TV news to passengers’ laptops via an onboard Wi-Fi connection.
Boeing director Mike Woodward says the research is fuelled by passengers’ desire for live news, as opposed to mere recorded comedies and movies during flights.
Choose a channel
Delivering live TV to planes is not easy. Once over the oceans and out of the reach of the land-focused satellite TV ranges – such as BSkyB's Astra satellite, covering the UK – aircraft cannot receive live TV signals.
So Boeing leased a chunk of satellite capacity on satellites with maritime coverage. Then on Friday the company began broadcasting four live news channels – BBC World, CNBC (MSNBC over the US), Euronews and Eurosport News – which can be received by planes anywhere in the northern hemisphere.
Boeing product manager Chris Petersen says the firm will buy similar capacity in the southern hemisphere in 2006, though it will be more limited to Africa, South America and Australia. "We are not going to broadcast to penguins for the sake of it," he says.
Cellphones in the sky
Internet access on aircraft is already becoming commonplace since 11 airlines – including Lufthansa, SAS and Singapore Airlines – are already using Boeing's high-speed satellite internet connection technology. The next step is to link that technology to cellphones.
Boeing is exploring several options. One is what Petersen calls "a VoIP phone that looks like Skype in a handset" – essentially an internet-telephony-based handset that flight attendants could hand out. Or the airline could allow people to use their own cellphones using a picocell base station within the craft to connect to a satellite.
On the test aircraft, Boeing issued standard GSM handsets. They worked perfectly well even when 12 miles out over the Irish Sea, way out of range of land-based phone masts. The cellphones were using a very low power onboard picocell base station. This meant the phones did not have to boost their own radiation to the maximum output in an attempt to contact a distant base station.
Gaining permission
But before Boeing could ever launch such a service it needs approval from aviation regulators, such as the US Federal Aviation Administration and the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, to prove it is safe for the aircraft. It also needs to confer with communications regulators like the US Federal Communications Commission, who want to make sure it does not overload ground-based base stations.
Connexion One's pilot and captain Jim Ratley says even with all the electronic equipment the aircraft carries there have been no adverse effect on his flight instruments. He says: "The whole system is meant to be transparent to the pilot so we're not aware it is there. We've never had any reportable emission problems from any cellphone."
However, as a recent New Scientist investigation revealed, expert opinion remains divided on the safety of in-flight cellphone use.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8117
Not only have the passengers been allowed to use cellphones in flight – not dreadful in itself perhaps – but the plane is stuffed with the latest technology, all potentially interfering with the plane’s electronics. Wi-Fi transmitters pepper the ceiling and live television and internet signals are being delivered through a 1-metre-wide satellite dish in the top of the plane.
Boeing was demonstrating two of the technologies it thinks will make flying more fun. The plane – Connexion One – is the company’s in-flight entertainment test aircraft, and New Scientist was hitching a ride.
Boeing's entertainment wish-list includes a technology it began rolling out to airlines on Friday: delivering live satellite TV news to passengers’ laptops via an onboard Wi-Fi connection.
Boeing director Mike Woodward says the research is fuelled by passengers’ desire for live news, as opposed to mere recorded comedies and movies during flights.
Choose a channel
Delivering live TV to planes is not easy. Once over the oceans and out of the reach of the land-focused satellite TV ranges – such as BSkyB's Astra satellite, covering the UK – aircraft cannot receive live TV signals.
So Boeing leased a chunk of satellite capacity on satellites with maritime coverage. Then on Friday the company began broadcasting four live news channels – BBC World, CNBC (MSNBC over the US), Euronews and Eurosport News – which can be received by planes anywhere in the northern hemisphere.
Boeing product manager Chris Petersen says the firm will buy similar capacity in the southern hemisphere in 2006, though it will be more limited to Africa, South America and Australia. "We are not going to broadcast to penguins for the sake of it," he says.
Cellphones in the sky
Internet access on aircraft is already becoming commonplace since 11 airlines – including Lufthansa, SAS and Singapore Airlines – are already using Boeing's high-speed satellite internet connection technology. The next step is to link that technology to cellphones.
Boeing is exploring several options. One is what Petersen calls "a VoIP phone that looks like Skype in a handset" – essentially an internet-telephony-based handset that flight attendants could hand out. Or the airline could allow people to use their own cellphones using a picocell base station within the craft to connect to a satellite.
On the test aircraft, Boeing issued standard GSM handsets. They worked perfectly well even when 12 miles out over the Irish Sea, way out of range of land-based phone masts. The cellphones were using a very low power onboard picocell base station. This meant the phones did not have to boost their own radiation to the maximum output in an attempt to contact a distant base station.
Gaining permission
But before Boeing could ever launch such a service it needs approval from aviation regulators, such as the US Federal Aviation Administration and the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority, to prove it is safe for the aircraft. It also needs to confer with communications regulators like the US Federal Communications Commission, who want to make sure it does not overload ground-based base stations.
Connexion One's pilot and captain Jim Ratley says even with all the electronic equipment the aircraft carries there have been no adverse effect on his flight instruments. He says: "The whole system is meant to be transparent to the pilot so we're not aware it is there. We've never had any reportable emission problems from any cellphone."
However, as a recent New Scientist investigation revealed, expert opinion remains divided on the safety of in-flight cellphone use.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8117
