Crave

(Credit: MotoArt)

"Join the mile-high club without the hassle of going to the airport," MotoArt says of its new Mile High Bed, which, like all of the company's products, is created from aircraft inventory.

At $35,000 (and no, those pretty flowers on the bedstand aren't included), this mod piece of furniture had better lift you to new altitudes of um, comfort and style. You could, after all, get a two-seat Cessna 152 for less. And seriously, if you're that intent on joining that proverbial action-in-the-sky club, might we suggest you just snag a couple of Southwest tickets?

In any case, we have to give the quirky Torrance, Calif.-based MotoArt credit for high levels of creativity. The bed is designed and fabricated from two DC-9 rear stabilizers and a C-130 inner flap. It's 11 feet long; 7 feet, 6 inches wide; and 4 feet, 6 inches high. All surfaces are sanded and mirror polished, and it's accented by Plexiglass and illuminated with internal LED lighting. We're so picturing an Austin Powers seduction ritual right now.

MotoArt--which also brought us the B-52 Stratofortress Ejector Seat Chair--finds its inventory in hangars and barns the world over. To date, it has designed and fabricated nearly 100 styles of recycled functional art.

If you're flying Delta Air Lines out of New York's LaGuardia Airport, you can now flash your cell phone to get onboard. On Tuesday, the airline rolled out a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to test out a "paperless check-in"--passengers download a boarding pass onto their cell phones and have it scanned by the TSA at the airport's security checkpoint as well as when they board the plane.

Fellow domestic carrier Continental is already testing a similar program.

The speedier check-in is limited to cell phone customers who can access the mobile Web on their phones, a release explained. And, at least for the time being, Delta's test only applies to domestic travelers flying out of LaGuardia.

"Passengers can now quickly check in for their flight while en route to the airport in a taxi or walking from the parking lot to the terminal," Steve Gorman, executive vice president of operations at Delta, said in the release. "The check-in process now can take place from anywhere, any time within 24 hours of flight departure."

They'll have to present ID, of course. Earlier this month, the TSA ruled that if you refuse to show ID, you can't get on the plane.

Small, "techie" enhancements have been appearing on the airline-news radar recently, as U.S. carriers look for inexpensive ways to make up for cutbacks elsewhere in response to high fuel prices--charging for checked baggage, eliminating perks. United Airlines is rolling out iPod hookups through a partnership with Apple that Delta and Continental will be joining, JetBlue's BetaBlue plane has expanded its in-flight e-mail, and Virgin America used gadget fetishes to pull itself into a "premium" niche.

And if some airlines have their way--heaven forbid--you might be able to keep using that cell phone right up into the air.

(Credit: New Line Cinema)

United Airlines has been subject to some pretty bad press recently for being one of several airlines to slap a $15 fee on checked bags, but here's a perk: the commerical carrier announced on Monday that it's starting to install iPod and iPhone connectivity features in its airplanes.

More specifically, owners of Apple's media devices can hook them up to the planes' in-flight entertainment systems; they can navigate through music and video on the seat back televisions while charging the devices in the process. The connectivity technology has been manufactured by Panasonic Avionics.

United is the first U.S. carrier to provide this service, it said in a statement. Late in 2006, iPod manufacturer Apple announced that it had struck a deal with the airline--as well as fellow domestic carriers Continental and Delta, as well as overseas carriers Air France, Emirates, and KLM--to configure in-flight iPod connectivity.

For United, the iPod cables won't be everywhere immediately. For the most part, they'll be installed on planes that make transatlantic flights, and in some cases will be restricted to those with first- and business-class seats. The first "iPod flight," United 936, will take off at 5:40 PM EDT on Monday in Washington, D.C., and fly to Zurich, Switzerland.

So, D.C.-to-Zurich pond hoppers: you can can now watch Snakes on a Plane on a plane (on an iPod, without draining your battery).

A Rocket Racer lifts off for a test flight.

(Credit: Rocket Racing)

NEW YORK--Top Gun and Ender's Game fans take note: Rocket Racing is here.

It'll be like Formula One or Nascar in the sky, or at least that's what the leadership of Rocket Racing said at a press conference at the Yale Club here on Monday morning. The aeronautics entertainment start-up announced the debut of its long-awaited Rocket Racing League, which will have its first exhibition race on August 1-2 at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wis.

The science fiction-like Rocket Racing pits aircraft called Rocket Racers against one another in a high-speed dash around the sky. The pilots are equipped with 3D helmets and navigation panels to visualize the virtual "raceway" they follow, and spectators on the ground and at home will have access to footage from remote and rocket-mounted cameras. This is accomplished through "cockpit-based augmented reality," which the Rocket Racing League ultimately wants to bring into general aviation as a way to make navigation easier and more efficient for pilots.

Rocket Racing, which hopes to have a formal racing season in 2010, simultaneously announced the acquisition of Florida-based Velocity Aircraft to produce the frame for all its aircraft.

"If you're going to race Ferrari in your league, why not own Ferrari?" Rocket Racing CEO Granger Whitelaw said of the acquisition.

In a hypothetical Rocket Racing event, up to 10 pilots will be racing at a time in a 90-minute race. The aircraft can fly up to 350 miles per hour. "It's great for TV," Whitelaw said. "It'll be very fast, very thrilling. It's all about competition." There will ideally be Rocket Racing video games released to fans in conjunction.

The company also plans to hold exhibition races at the Reno National Championship Air Races in September, the Aviation Nation event in November, and the 2008 X Prize Cup. Six teams have already signed up for the Rocket Racing League's first season, and Whitelaw said that two television networks have already offered deals.

But the announcement itself was a long time coming, and Rocket Racing's short history has been rife with delays. "It's almost now three and a half years since we announced the concept to the media and the world and I've very proud of the incredible progress that's been made by this team," Rocket Racing League co-Chairman Peter Diamandis, who also serves as the CEO of the X Prize Foundation, said at the press event via videoconference. "We waited quite a long time to unveil this, until we were ready."

Indeed, after launching in 2005, "we were very optimistic in hoping to race in 2006," Whitelaw admitted in the press conference. "I take full responsibility for missing our target date. We're about 15 months behind schedule." Ultimately, the Rocket Racing League didn't have its first successful test flight until November 2007.

And the Federal Aviation Administration has not yet given the league the green light. "We have no reason to believe they won't," Whitelaw said. But this is key to the company's promises of safety, which Whitelaw reiterated to an audience that seemed mildly skeptical at the prospect of rocket-powered planes zipping around the sky with spectators on the ground below. "Every plane in every air show has to be approved by the FAA," Whitelaw explained. He added, "We will never be flying directly at (spectators)."

Rocket Racing filed an extensive safety-related patent on Monday."We have the technology today," Whitelaw said.

And on the subject of environmental friendliness, he explained that "we like to say that 95 percent of our fuel is grown on trees." He provided the example of IndyCar, which now powers its vehicles with ethanol, but admitted that some of the Rocket Racing aircraft engines' technology does run on kerosene. But the company is currently looking at using more biofuels "to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and we'll be introducing those when we can."

The biggest problem with JetBlue's inaugural "BetaBlue" flight, equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging, was the fact that there aren't power outlets on board the aircraft.

Sure, there are those little 110-volt things in each bathroom. But if you hog the airplane toilet so that you can give your laptop some juice, you're going to be the second most unpopular person on that flight. (The screaming kid in seat 15D still beats you.)

All joking aside, if in-flight Wi-Fi is going to take off, airplanes are going to need power outlets. Virgin America already has them, as do many pricier foreign airlines (some only in first class). So do high-end Amtrak trains, like the Acela Express line from Washington, D.C., to Boston. Sure, you might be able to make it from New York to Miami on your laptop battery, but New York to San Francisco just doesn't cut it, especially if you're not sure when you're going to be able to get to a power outlet on the ground.

As for the service itself, let's just say it's complicated. If BetaBlue's connection were my home ISP, I'd ask them to cancel my subscription; it was hardly ultra-reliable, and the instant-messaging application took quite a bit of time to boot up. But this was the first flight of a brand-new program, so I'll give JetBlue the benefit of the doubt here.

And JetBlue representatives, including a handful of engineers from its LiveTV division, which operates the Wi-Fi service, seemed quite thrilled when BetaBlue touched down. It didn't have to work perfectly. It just had to happen.

That's because the upside to BetaBlue (in addition to the fact that I was able to send IMs to every single one of my co-workers and say "Guess what?! I'm on a plane!!!") is that it was an actual realization of in-flight broadband access. In other words, JetBlue's extremely limited offering was potentially a kick in the pants to any other commercial carrier that's been wringing its figurative hands over a similar project. After the disaster that was Boeing's Connexion service, and the trepidation that followed, some airline needed to take that first step forward in order for Wi-Fi on planes to become a reality.

And there are going to be a ton of questions to answer. Will it be free? Ad-supported? Will there be a subscription charge? What if the guy in the seat next to you is looking at porn? Even worse, what if he plugs in a Skype headset and starts yakking away?

But at least the ball is rolling. TechCrunch reported last week that the Aircell service--which owns part of the same 800 MHz spectrum that hosts JetBlue's air-to-ground wireless--may soon make appearances on both Virgin America and American Airlines.

And additionally, I will remember BetaBlue fondly for this most paramount of reasons: it lifted me up from cold, rainy New York and planted me in the middle of a sunny, mild San Francisco day.

If there were snakes on this plane, you could IM your friends and tell them.

Low-cost airline JetBlue has equipped one of its Airbus A320 planes with an onboard wireless network and has forged partnerships with Yahoo and BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion to give passengers access to the companies' e-mail and instant messaging functions while in the air. The airline considers the plane, nicknamed "BetaBlue," to be an early-stage test as the company explores expanding in-flight communication options.

(Credit: JetBlue)

Passengers won't be able to surf the full Web. But if they bring Wi-Fi-equipped laptops along, they can access lightweight versions of Yahoo e-mail and instant messaging services; BlackBerry owners who have Wi-Fi-enabled handsets (the BlackBerry 8820 and BlackBerry Curve 8320) will be able to access their personal and corporate e-mail. BlackBerry models that have only cellular connections rather than Wi-Fi won't be compatible--the Federal Communications Commission still has a ban on cellular service in-flight.

The plane will take its inaugural flight on Tuesday morning, making the cross-country trip from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to San Francisco International Airport. After that, "BetaBlue" will be added to JetBlue's regular flight lineup; a company representative told CNET News.com that there will be no way to specifically request the messaging-equipped plane, nor will any additional fee be charged for the service.

It's been known for well over a year that JetBlue had been planning some sort of in-flight wireless initiative. LiveTV, a division of the airline, was awarded a 1MHz air-to-ground wireless license from the FCC in June 2006, following an intense bidding war. After 120 bids, LiveTV paid $7 million for the license, which offers full coverage of the continental U.S. above 10,000 feet. Another company, AirCell, obtained a 3MHz license for $31.3 million in the same FCC auction.

Earlier this year, JetBlue representatives hinted that they were interested in exploring options for in-flight text messaging--but that would require a relaxation of the FCC's stringent regulations.

As the major players in the airline industry compete with one another in an increasingly tech-savvy world, carriers have touted in-flight tech innovations like satellite TV service and electrical power connections. JetBlue already offers DirecTV service, as well as XM satellite radio on some of its newer planes. When Virgin America first took off in August, geeks drooled over the USB and power connections, MP3 library, and a messaging service that lets lonely passengers strike up conversations with fellow travelers on the same plane.

But when it comes to communication services (Virgin America's intra-plane messaging aside), there have been some major momentum issues. Cell phone use on planes is still a contentious topic, but it's nevertheless likely imminent on some foreign carriers and some wireless companies see it as a potential source of profit.

Broadband Internet is a different story. Connexion, a paid in-flight broadband service from Boeing, was used by a number of foreign airlines, like Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, before it was officially shut down at the end of 2006. There's been no word from Panasonic recently on a rumored plan to succeed where Connexion had failed.

And when BetaBlue takes off on Tuesday, it will make the Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue the first domestic airline carrier to offer any kind of wireless service in the air. Virgin America's planes have Ethernet ports at each seat, but they remain inactive.

JetBlue representatives said that if BetaBlue proves successful, expansions to the program will become evident over the next year. This would possibly include either installing the Yahoo and RIM services on other planes, or expanding the wireless offerings.

(Credit: Vision Systems International)

The new combat helmet now being tested may become an integral part of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, replacing the traditional jet fighter head-up display with computerized "symbology" projected directly onto the pilot's visor.

In addition to keeping pilots on top of navigation, weapons and other aircraft, the Helmet Mounted Display System will superimpose a binocular-wide field-of-view, infrared image of the world below, allowing the pilot to "look through" the cockpit floor at night. This will let a pilot turn in any direction and still be able to see a virtual heads-up display, replacing the information that is currently seen only at the front of the cockpit.

If it works, the F-35 will be the first tactical fighter jet in 50 years to fly without an HUD. The British Royal Air Force's Centre for Aviation Medicine is evaluating the helmet, which is manufactured by Silicon Valley-based Vision Systems International and Helmet Integrated Systems.

They may want to add the following label. "Warning: In case of crash, remove helmet before approaching natives for assistance."

Boeing's big project for this year is to get a dream off the ground--literally. The aviation giant's first 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to emerge from the factory on July 8, with a first flight anticipated for later in the summer.

Click on the image above to see more photos.

(Credit: Boeing)

New fuel economy, greater range, and groovy interior set this new machine apart. How did they do that? Why does it have curvy wings? What do the heads-up displays look like? Click on the image for a slideshow and more information on the fastest-selling aircraft ever.

I just came across this link to what must one of the more extreme forms of Star Wars fandom to extrude itself onto the Internet in recent memory: A hot air balloon in the shape of Darth Vader's helmet. (Via SciFi Tech and Boing Boing.)

(Credit: StarWars.com)

It was created by a mad Belgian inventor named Benoit Lambert, who, according to StarWars.com, received permission from Lucasfilm to build the balloon as long as it was used for non-commercial activities. It can carry two passengers and a pilot. There's no indication of when Lambert will build a lighter-than-air Death Star.

That's all fine, but as a pilot of fixed-wing planes myself, it would be more than a little worrisome to see Darth Vader's head looming up unexpectedly in the windscreen. According to federal aviation rules (see FAR 91.113), balloons supposedly have the right-of-way over all other aircraft. But the FARs say nothing about when it's Darth Vader's head -- which is why it's high time for us pilots to outfit our Cessnas with some badly-needed offensive weaponry.