64kbps @ 40,000 ft.

jumpstop writes "The NYT Technology section reports that 64kbps is now available on business jets. Sure, you can read your email and surf the web, but can you blast away at Wolfenstein?"

for luser tin hat types...

[Anonymous Coward]

SPEED demons, the kind who like corporate jets that do 500 knots at 40,000 feet, are reaching the point where they can cruise the Internet at that altitude as well -- and at speeds comparable to a deskbound computer's.

This month Honeywell, the satellite service provider Inmarsat and the French electronics company Thales demonstrated a system in which fliers with laptops can be linked, by an Ethernet LAN or wireless connection, to an antenna on top of the fuselage, allowing speeds of up to 64 kilobits per second.

Laptop users need a network card or a wireless modem. The system, called Swift 64, is fast enough to handle streaming video or video conference calls using standard equipment.

The first market is corporate jets, but the builders hope to sell the system to airlines, too. The companies did not give a price but said it would depend partly on how much equipment was already on board. Many planes already have some satellite communication gear for passenger seat-back telephones and for the cockpit crew to use to communicate with the airline or maintenance base.

Boeing has a competing product that is in service on 11 corporate planes, and Lufthansa is hoping to offer it on a Boeing 747 late this year or early next year. Boeing and Lufthansa have not worked out how they will charge customers. Communications experts say they could charge by the minute or the bit.

A spokesman for Connexion by Boeing, the subsidiary that produces the system, said it would allow the use of palmtop-based e-mail service in addition to laptops, and speeds far higher than the Swift 64 system, 20 gigabits per second.

Tenzing Communications, a Seattle company partly owned by the European plane maker Airbus, also provides a slower satellite-based service on a handful of airlines.

Honeywell's demonstration plane, a Cessna Citation, a twin-engine business jet that carries two crew members and as many as eight passengers, carries an antenna about the size and shape of a surfboard.

Planes with long over-water routes often carry satellite antennas; older antenna models are steered mechanically to keep them pointed toward the satellite as the plane banks, climbs and descends. The one on the Honeywell plane is steered electronically. On a recent demonstration flight from Dulles Airport near Washington, the antenna was pointed at a satellite in orbit over Brazil that transmitted back to a ground station in Connecticut.

On the demonstration flight, a user of a Dell Latitude CPx found that the Web site of the Federal Aviation Administration popped up on the screen so fast that the system's performance was nearly indistinguishable from that of a desktop in a corporate office.

Such speed offers white-knuckle fliers new possibilities: for example, it took no time at all to download a 238-kilobyte aviation safety manual.

Castle Wolfenstein for Apple II

[yerricde]

not if your latency still sucks :)

The blurb didn't state which Wolfenstein or which 64 kbps. For all we know, it could be referring to "Castle Wolfenstein" for the Apple II family. The Apple II's disk drive operated at a maximum sustained speed of (you guessed it) 64 kbps (with any OS more recent than Apple DOS 3.3 such as Diversi-DOS, ProntoDOS, or ProDOS).

Re:WLANs don't bother the plane?

[nochops]

Contrary to popular belief, the main reason you can't use a cellphone in a plane is the altitude. A cell phone will register with any cell it can reach. On the ground, this isn't going to be a problem, but at 30000 feet, your phone could theoretically tie up many many cells with the same connection.

Already been done at 128 KBPS

[Anonymous Coward]

This has already been achieved using the GlobalStar constellation:

http://www.qualcomm.com/press/pr/releases2001/pr es s27.html

Re:Flying business class?

[daviddennis]

As others have said, we're talking about private jets, not business class commercial aviation.

For information on the cost of chartering your own private jet, check out skyjet.com [skyjet.com]. The bottom line is that if you can fill the jet (capacities of roughly 8-20), it costs roughly the same as first class airfare for all the passengers.

D

Re:Already approaching from the wrong direction

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

The hardware for a wireless network might be cheaper but the certification costs would be frightening. A manufacturer would have to check each piece of avionics, in every operating mode, to be sure it wouldn't be upset by having dozens of radio transmitters on board.

Re:*WEAK*

[Roadmaster]

there's this thing called a "book" which is sort of like a magazine but with no pictures and more pages. On my last trip I read 2 books while flying and I didn't get bored at all. Give it a try, hey, they even sell books at the airport's newsshop.

Re:Already approaching from the wrong direction

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the main reason, as I understand it (a pilot and geek) is that such devices interfere with the directional radios (NDBs and VORs) used to aid navigation. Since the GPS revolution, it seems to me the only thing you REALLY need a VOR for these days is an approach in poor conditions. Hence the rules about takeoffs and landings..

Re:Already approaching from the wrong direction

[Halvard]

SAS has already begun offering 802.11b in their planes in Scandanavia.