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WIFI on passenger jets:

WIFI on passenger jets:

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http://www.zdnet.com/wi-fi-on-a-plane-more-boeing-aircraft-get-wireless-mobile-access-7000004631/

So much for the old theory of being forced to turn of electronics because it might interfere with operation of the aircraft. I always thought that was bogus, now it seems I am proved right. Now there will be potentially dozens of laptops, Ipads, Kindle Fire's and smartphones running all at once, so what happened to the electronic bogeyman?

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Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.zdnet.com/wi-fi-on-a-plane-more-boeing-aircraft-get-wireless-mobile-access-7000004631/

So much for the old theory of being forced to turn of electronics because it might interfere with operation of the aircraft. I always thought that was bogus, now it seems I am proved right. Now there will be potentially dozens of laptops, Ipads, Kindle Fire's and smartphones running all at once, so what happened to the electronic bogeyman?
More importantly will most of the plane be "Gadget Free"?

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Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.zdnet.com/wi-fi-on-a-plane-more-boeing-aircraft-get-wireless-mobile-access-7000004631/

So much for the old theory of being forced to turn of electronics because it might interfere with operation of the aircraft. I always thought that was bogus, now it seems I am proved right. Now there will be potentially dozens of laptops, Ipads, Kindle Fire's and smartphones running all at once, so what happened to the electronic bogeyman?
WRONG!~

These planes now have 11 firewalls separating the cockpit from the wifi so the gadgets do not interfere with the instruments. You won't soon see the co-pilot playing Angry Birds in the cockpit, my friend.

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
You won't soon see the co-pilot playing Angry Birds in the cockpit, my friend.
That's only because the door stays closed all the time.

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
WRONG!~

These planes now have 11 firewalls separating the cockpit from the wifi so the gadgets do not interfere with the instruments. You won't soon see the co-pilot playing Angry Birds in the cockpit, my friend.
The original complaint from airlines wasn't from pilots sneaking game time, it was from supposed direct electronic interference via radio waves from cell phones and such talking to flight electronics. Either they have had a revolution in the protection of such airborne instrumentation or then never was a real problem in the first place.

I work in the semiconductor industry and about 5 years ago I was working on a contract basis in Toledo Ohio at Midwest Micro Devices, a semiconductor foundry. We were refurbishing a horizontal furnace (gets up to 1300 degrees C with injected process gasses) and the only time I ever found interference was with walkie talkies to my co-worker who was inside the cleanroom while I was outside tweeking circuitry. I was surprised to find LED's lighting up whenever I talked on the thing but had to be within a couple of feet of the circuit boards in question. You get even 3 feet away and the problem disappeared. That was direct interference from a hand held transmitter but with a lot more power than a cell phone, which is in the milliwatt range of power, while the handi talkies were several watts.

So it seemed clear to me there could be no interference with flight electronics considering the extreme low power of consumer devices, they would stop you from using un wifi'd laptops even, which is totally ridiculous from an interference standpoint.

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