This may be one of the first places you read about a new-patented PED Pouch – that’s Personal Electronic Device Pouch. While it is just a seatback, portable entertainment device holder, it represents where a lot of future IFE will be coming from – you! Interested? Read about the particulars here. We asked Global’s Todd Hamblin, a few questions that he answered in the next paragraph.

“The PED Pouch is made from the same material as the seat cover. The customer will have the ability to define whether they want leather or fabric along with the color. The surface that you can view your device through is Lexan and it that passes the required FAA flammability testing. We are currently fabricating prototype units to be demonstrated during the Hamburg AIX. The PED Pouch is being developed as a standalone unit that can be sold to airlines, seat vendors or aftermarket seat refurbishment companies. A Velcro strip, if not already present, will need to be sewn into the top of the seat cover. The PED Pouch will come with a mating Velcro strip that will then attach to the seat top and lay over the seat back. For those seats that have a Velcro strip installed so the airline can install head doilies, we will include an extra Velcro strip on top of the PED Pouch so we don’t interrupt the airline process. We have designed the PED Pouch to accept the Microsoft Surface so that all other handheld devices will easily fit. We have also left small openings in the bottom and sides to allow passengers to plug in power to charge or headphones. And yes, Global received a launch customer for the PED Pouch last week and are currently working the certification plan to obtain an FAA project number.” For more information, contact Todd Hamblin +1.513.444.4049 (thamblin@gadc.aero)

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Iridium and Globalstar are in the process of developing some very interesting and new solutions for connectivity and aircraft location capabilities. Iridium’s 66-satellite LEO constellation covers 100 percent of the globe, while Globalstar has 32 LEO satellites in earth orbit. Globalstar has a new Sat-Fi product that enables voice, data and TXT worldwide. Iridium’s Next program, the next generation, will be fully implemented by 2017. Watch for faster aviation data solutions that result in advantages from the upgraded. Iridium Next will have 66 “birds” in Low Earth Orbit, a 9x improvement in throughput and 125x improvement in memory capacity – Ka Band up to 1.5 Mbps and broadcast up to 64 Kbps. As you would expect, with global coverage, ADS-B, seems a real potential and Aireon was formed to help just that. With Aireon, air traffic management organizations worldwide can track an aircraft’s position in real-time, thus minimizing disasters like MH 370. Don’t be surprised if a few more connectivity providers crop up soon for this solution and more inflight/ground Internet and connectivity solution.

Generally, there is also a lot of interest in low earth orbit Internet, as well as, aviation connectivity and much of the desire is based upon the shorter signal transit time for signals to be sent to, and received back from, the source, as we noted above. There may be some crossover in the two solutions, (aviation and Internet) but who knows how it will work out? Google, Facebook, and Elon Musk are names we recently have seen that are interested and have committed money to provide a worldwide Internet solution.

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And speaking of inflight Internet, Eric Tarter sent us this very interesting link: “Thought you might want to read this… very interesting article on O3b and upcoming OneWeb.  Brief mention of this technology to bring much faster (and sounds like less costly) Internet to aircraft.  Also Qualcomm and Virgin Group are big backers of OneWeb.”

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London, 2 February 2015 – Inmarsat announced the successful launch of its second Global Xpress (GX) satellite (Inmarsat-5 F2) on board an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday (Sunday 1 February) at 12:31 GMT. Check out the full release.

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The next time you smell cinnamon on an aircraft you might consider that it is not coming from a dessert. Noted Science Daily, “People smelling warm fragrances such as cinnamon feel that the room they are in is more crowded, and feel less powerful as a result,” wrote the authors. “This can lead them to compensate by buying items they feel are more prestigious.” They went on to say, “When people in a room experienced a “warm” scent such as cinnamon, they felt the room was more crowded than when they experienced a “cool” scent, even though the room contained the same number of people each time. The people in the “warm, crowded” room felt less powerful as a result of the perceived crowding, and were more likely to compensate for this loss of power by buying items which they felt were prestigious and which helped raise their personal status.” Hmmm, we just thought about sweet rolls – go figure.

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One reader told IFExpress: “One airline wanted to sell the interior and exterior surfaces of the winglets, both wings, with a Guinness Beer advertisement.  The airline claimed Boeing would get a payback in 18-months. Boeing apparently rejected their inventive offer because they had to pay the composite supplier in cash, not beer.  But the idea was indeed creative.  Now it seems Boeing has hit upon a way to leverage those moving billboards.  See the article: Boeing’s flying Jumbotrons could light up future jetliners with digital advertisements”

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It never crossed our minds that an LED could deliver light and data at the same time, especially without being able to notice the data signals on the light. Harald Haus did and his TED Talk is a real eye opener, especially when you realize that a lot of new aircraft interior lighting is from LED’s.

And while we are on the subject of light and signals, we know this discovery is important. Perhaps, it will even work with the technology we noted in the previous sentence… or not!

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Dateline: Seattle – Boeing Museum of Flight moves planes, readying new covered Air Transport Gallery.

First some clean up – If you are still wondering where the US FAA and FCC stand on the subject of inflight cell phone usage, here is a link to their website wherein a Q & A clearly sets out who-does-what-to-whom and from here, it looks like the onus is clearly with the airline. Clearly.

And speaking of inflight telephones, did you see the class action lawsuit filed in Northern California that claims; “Gogo has unlawfully obtained and/or maintained monopoly market power in the United States market for inflight Internet connectivity on domestic commercial aircraft by resort to anti-competitive conduct that includes a series of long-term exclusive contracts with the major domestic airlines in the United States. These exclusive contracts have the purpose and effect of thwarting competition on the merits and on price, and [they] have permitted Gogo to charge consumers like Plaintiffs and the members of the class they seek to represent supra-competitive prices. Judge Edward Chen wrote: “To be sure, the Court is cognizant that there may be problems with some of Plaintiffs’ allegations. Gogo never had a contract with Southwest and its contract with United contained terms indicating that the entirety (or near entirety) of United’s fleet was not locked up for a significant period of time (contrary to Plaintiffs’ representation). The Court is also cognizant of the fact that Southwest and United are two of the biggest providers of commercial, domestic airline travel — a point that neither party disputes. These facts legitimately put into question Plaintiffs’ assertion that “Gogo possesses at least an 85 percent market share of all commercial aircraft servicing flights within the continental United States. Nevertheless, even if the 85 percent figure is not correct, Plaintiffs allege with specificity other major airlines—including American, Delta, and US Air—whose fleets in their entirety or near entirety are or were locked up by Gogo’s contract. Thus, it is plausible that even if not a 85 percent market share, Gogo has a substantial enough market share such that, together with the allegations in Plaintiffs’ complaint that there are high barriers to entry, a substantial share of the market has been foreclosed.” The lawsuit alleges that Gogo has established exclusive deals with airlines for the purpose of engaging in overcharging flying customers. This is interesting in the climate of newfound airline prosperity (+ $6Bn profit last year) that has come about as a result of ancillary revenue. And, we note that inflight telephony has been around since the early 1990’s – so why is this just coming to light?

Next, we might have found a way for airlines to make money off inflight cell calling, and, the aversion to the same… click here. Interestingly, if money is to be made off of inflight telephony (and the aversion thereof), we thought Ryanair would be right in there with other airlines, but there is another side to this one.

Having penned the above notes, we stumbled across a release about a developing story from Globalstar that outlines a new, W-Fi frequency based connectivity solution that uses your Tablet/Phone and a special app that communicated in the 5 Ghz range. It permits worldwide voice, text, SMS, and the like, using their new Sat-Fi satcom network. While they do not specify inflight usage or applications, we cannot wonder about the solution being transmitted via satellite. Check it out and ask a few questions about inflight usage (No?), inflight connectivity interference (UNK?), pricing (Probably high!), and a whole host of other issues! LINK

And, if you are an Iridium fan, they now have a satcom-based hotspot service called Iridium Go! $800 gets the small antenna-adorned device and we wonder if it will ever find usage on a plane? Bizjet, perhaps!

Go Hawks! OK, we are Seattle Seahawks fans and if you want to see how Boeing celebrated their success prior the Super Bowl check out this classy aviation move to salute the fans (12th Man).