Bob Axtell wrote:

> Aviation electronics must pass a rigid gauntlet of radiation and EMI 
> tests. If you design
> for aircraft, you are no longer in Kansas, Toto.

Big time.  Many budding avionics companies have gone under over the 
years who had great "ideas" but no clue how to execute -- when it came 
to TSO and other certifications.

> Newer types of shielding are made from carbon foams, and add almost no 
> weight whatever.

True Bob... today.

At least half (if not more) of the operating commercial airliner fleet 
was built at least, 20 or more years ago.

If everyone's willing to pay triple (or more) for a ticket than they do 
today, we can retire all the old aircraft, use fiber optics where ever 
possible, and shield the hell out of the aircraft's systems with modern 
technology, and we'll still have:

1. Problems with RF interference from cheap cell phone devices.
2. The cell devices will cause huge problems for the network designed 
for terrestrial RF coverage.

In other words -- none of the problems surrounding the oh-so-innocent 
question "Why can't I use my cell phone in an airplane" are even 
remotely trivial.

Various techniques have been talked about, including placing micro-cells 
on aircraft that would command the phones to use minimum power and would 
use a completely un-related technology to "standard" cellular which 
would relay the calls earthward... amongst others.

Additionally people have looked at "certifying" certain phones for use 
aboard aircraft, but in an industry based on selling the customer a new 
device filled with ever more non-telephone features every year -- and 
one that can't support the cost of their own networks without multi-year 
contracts and kickbacks...

I doubt the average consumer would be willing to pay the price really 
necessary for such a device certification program.  $500 phone?  $1000? 
  What would you pay?  Is it more than the per-minute cost of just 
picking up the GTE AirFone in the seatback when you need it?  (Yep.)

Look at the price difference between an Aviation-certified GPS and the 
$80 GPS at your local WalMart to get an idea of the multiplication 
factors we're talking about here in price.

The bigger problem is the social one.  You really want the pompous drunk 
businessman in 1st Class talking so loud on his phone that you can hear 
him in seat 23D?

But ultimately, just like everything else in our modern pampered life -- 
it's about money.

Want to use your cell phone in flight?  You could lead the charge to 
push prices up dramatically for the other 200 people on your aircraft 
who just want to get from point A to point B... or you could just fly in 
a privately owned/operated aircraft and buy the appropriate technology.

Other interesting "stuff" is the recent introduction of 802.11x 
networking aboard commercial aircraft.  (I believe Lufthansa is doing 
this in a pilot program on some International flights.)

Almost as much engineering involved, but because IP is the great 
equalizer... it's far more cost-effective and useful, but still 
expensive.  But certainly smarter from a purely business perspective 
than doing all the engineering required for three people to talk on a 
cell phone.

Nate
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