Airline Cabins Of the Future- A New Golden Age of Travel

Air Travel Experience Renovated with Technology

In comparison to the air travel photos of the 1960s which portray smartly attired, champagne sipping passengers in a spacious airliner cabins, the present scenario is that of cramped seats with overcrowded airports which appears that our flying experiences seems to be gradually getting worse. The aviation industry has invested immensely in order to demonstrate sentimental passengers, the mistake.

Though the aircraft may seem to be the same to those of the supposed wonderful years but each aspect of air travel experience is being renovated currently, with the use of technology. At the front position we have the aircraft cabins and the fundamental to their transformation is that of a wireless connection. With every passenger practically using a smartphone, tablet or a laptop, the inflight Wi-Fi tends to open up new means of commitment with the travellers and redefine their flying experience.

Mobile technology has already being playing an important part in improving travel accompanied with electronic boarding passes to last-minute bids on biz upgrades on class. Other airlines such as KLM had also begun sending boarding passes as well as flight alerts, through dedicated airline Facebook Messenger chat bot.

Inflight Entertainment/Personal Devices

However, the one area wherein mobile could be accurately transformative is the inflight entertainment together with personal devices being a gateway to a range of up-in-the-air services. Though built-in-in-flight entertainment systems seem doubtfulto disappear, especially on long-haul flights, they could work in tandem with the own devices of the passengers.

Panasonic had unveiled Waterfront, earlier in 2016 which is a system that permits passenger in utilising their mobile handset in order to control the built-in entertainment of the aircraft. Aerospace companies Thales and B/E have also been utilising mobiles in personalizing passenger experiences.

On syncing the handsets, the seats tend to know the preferences of a passenger and could also restart a movie at the precise place they could have left in the earlier flight. Some of the airlines are discarding the implanted entertainment systems completely and are opting for he handsets of the passengers in delivering inflight entertainment, which is a change that significantly lessens aircraft weight and more cabin space.

Cost Effective/Flexible Means of Quality Inflight Content

Internet connection is not needed and passengers could only link their devices to an in-plane network. AirFi, Netherlands-based is mostly preparing low-cost airlines which tend to fly short-haul single-aisle aircraft often and does not have entertainment systems. The portable wireless system of the company beams pre-loaded content on the devices of the passenger.

The AirFi terminal tends to perform like a normal Internet router which is lightweight and can be installed in a luggage compartment with ease. Job Heimerikx, AirFi CEO had stated that it is cost effective as well as a flexible means of providing quality inflight content to the short haul market. He further added that `there are customer service and a commercial angle to the system and passenger could access a broad range of movies together with other kind of entertainment though they could also utilise it to order food or shop duty free.

It seems like an evolution of the traditional inflight magazine but since it occurs at online stores, one could make it really personal’. This conception tends to flourish on obtaining a captive audience.

When Will F-35 Be Ready for Battle?

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter – Most Expensive Weapon in History

The fifth generation fighter plane, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is said to be the most expensive weapon in history and in spite of costing $400 billion for 2,457 planes, it has been afflicted with problems. A new report has stated that the craft could eventually be ready for battle later this year.

According to Defence One, Gen. Herbert `Hawk’ Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command, at the Royal International Air Tattoo, in England, had stated that they are getting very close to initial operational capability. He added that he will make the call and coordinate with the Secretary, (Deborah Lee) James and Gen (David) Goldfein – the Air Force chief of staff and make the decision on when they intend declaring IOC.

To be ready for battle, around a dozen single F-35 need to demonstrate their capability to drop bombs and shoot down other planes. Each jet should be progressed to an explicit software package and persevered in the intricate logistic cloud which tends to accomplish maintenance.

The target date had been set for August 1 by the F-35 project office and it is believed a squadron at Utah’s Hill Air Force Base, north of Salt Lake City would now be the declared battle ready somewhere between August and December.

Project Weighed down with Delays

The project has been weighed down with delays. Senator John McCain had informed senior Pentagon officials earlier in the year that the record on cost, schedule as well as performance of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter had been a scandal and a tragedy.

McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee had stated that the development schedule of the aircraft had extended to 15 years, deliveries of the F-35 has been delayed while the cost had hit the roof. Recently the problems with its logistics software system had grounded the complete fleet.

 The problem lies with what the Department of Defense officials call the `brain’ of plane, also called the Autonomic Logistics Information System – ALIS. A report from a Government Accountability Office states that a failure `could take the complete fleet offline’, since there seems to be no backup system.

Runs on Ground Computers

Moreover, the report has also stated that a lack of testing done of the software would mean it is not ready for its disposition by the Air Force in August and the Navy in 2018. The brains of the F-35 are said to be one of three main components, with the other two being the engine and airframe.

 It has been pointed out by CNN that the software tends to run on ground computers instead of operating the same on the plane. It has been designed to assist operations, mission planning as well as to spot any issues of maintenance with the vehicle.

 The report also stated that the program officials had informed that if ALIS is not fully functional, the F-35 would not be operated as often as planned.However, a DoD specially made plan observed that schedule slippage and functionality issues with ALIS could result in $20-100 billion as extra costs’.

The software till now has been so defective that the maintenance crews had to resort to labour intensive substitutes. In one instance, according to National Interest, maintainers had to physically burn data onto the CDs and send the huge files across a national Wi-Fi network.