airplane

British Airways announced this week that it would initiate limited cell phone use on an upcoming route between London and New York City. Voice calls will not be permitted, but passengers will be allowed to send and receive text messages and e-mails.

The airline will limit the service to twice-daily flights between London City Airport and New York's JFK that are due to start in September. The all-business class route is flown by a narrow-body Airbus A318 aircraft that must make a stop in Ireland on the westbound leg. The configuration will allow for just 32 seats.

British Airways … Read more

The iFlyz will most likely get you flagged going through airport security, but once you're on the plane, it could help you sit back and distract yourself from the overly loquacious dude sitting next to you enjoy the flight.

The "in-flight personal media solution" secures mobile electronics for travelers who want to watch a movie, surf through music, or read online without having to hold a gadget in their hands or create a makeshift balancing apparatus out of a pillow or another passenger's head.

To use the iFlyz, you attach your phone or media player to … Read more

The rapid-fire spread of a close-up photo of the US Airways plane that crashed in the Hudson River Thursday resulted in the service that hosted the picture going down.

TwitPic, an application that allows users to take pictures from their mobile phones and append them to Twitter posts, went down after at least 7,000 people attempted to view the photo of the airplane taken from a commuter ferry by Sarasota, Fla., resident Janis Krums.

According to Noah Everett, the founder of TwitPic, who still runs the service by himself, after the photo of the plane was re-tweeted by a … Read more

Even though Jeff and Wilson are having an "off day," the show is still as ridiculous and irrelevant as always, replete with stories about stuffing monkeys up your shirt, dirty Nintendo Scrabble words, and the worst Top 10 gadgets list of all time. Oh, and be sure to listen until to the end to hear Wilson completely destroy the 4th wall.

Wilson and Jeff are in some kind of slump, so it's up to me (Yu) to cheer them up, and I think a combination of funny stories and a heartfelt air hug sesh gets the job … Read more

Coffee, tea, or porn? "I don't think so," say American Airline flight attendants.

Leaders of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents some 19,000 workers including American Airlines flight attendants, asked American Airline's management this week to consider adding filters to its in-flight Wi-Fi access to prevent passengers from viewing porn and other inappropriate Web sites while in-flight.

A union representative told Bloomberg News that attendants and passengers have raised "a lot of complaints" over the issue.

American Airlines is one of several airlines testing in-flight Internet access as a way to … Read more

A House of Representatives committee threw another hurdle into the path of in-flight cell phone use Thursday, when it voted to ban the use permanently. By a voice vote, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace(or Hang Up) Act, which was introduced earlier this year by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

The legislation, which now moves to the full House for consideration, would prohibit "voice communications using communications devices on scheduled flights," with exceptions for flight crew members and a federal law enforcement officer acting in an official capacity. In-flight texting, Wi-Fi, and e-mail on airplanes would not be affected.

In a statement, DeFazio said that not only is cell phone use aloft an annoyance, but also that airlines should be stopped from using in-flight talking as a potential revenue source. "With airline customer satisfaction at an all time low, this is not the time to consider making airplane travel even more torturous," he said. "Polls show the public overwhelmingly doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on increasingly over-packed airplanes." During the hearing, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) lodged a dissenting voice, saying, "You are trying to legislate courtesy, folks, and that just doesn't work." … Read more

We finally get CNET photographer Sarah Tew into The 404 lair and I screw it all up in the preshow. 'Twas totally unintentional, Ms. Tew, I promise! Ahh, this big, dumb mouth of mine. Anyway, Sarah was dragged in by Corinne Shulze, another CNET shooter visiting from the City by the Bay. In nothing short of a miracle, they still agree to do the show and we get right into it.

Wait, not quite...we have to talk about medical ailments and weekend buffoonery, right? Corinne tells us about her fight with a MUNI rail (you should've seen the … Read more

The Farnborough international air show in England this week brought together aircraft makers eager to show off their established planes and tout their works in progress. It also attracted aerospace buffs eager to get an up-close look at aircraft on the ground and gaze at flyovers above.

The trade show is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It was established as a place for the British public to learn about the best of British aviation engineering, and has since emerged as a global showcase for all things aerospace. Click on the image above to see scenes from this year's … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--If you've ever flown on a commercial airline, you've probably wondered how air traffic controllers do their jobs.

There's certainly lots to it, but increasingly, software from a company called Adacel is behind it all.

The company was originally Australian, but relocated here. It employs several dozen people to create software used by civilian aviation agencies like the FAA in the United States and its counterparts in other countries to do a better job managing the ever-growing amount of airplanes flying today.

I visited Adacel here Thursday as part of Road Trip 2008, my voyage … Read more