Virgin America showcases pimped out aircraft, lobbies for US flights
By Darren Murph 
posted January 17th 2007 5:56PM
posted January 17th 2007 5:56PM
If you've never heard of Richard Branson before today, you just might become one of his best friends after checking his aircraft. The billionaire in charge of Virgin Atlantic wants to bring the company's "passion for innovation and technology" to America, and while we've seen glimmers of hope for air travel within the States, it seems that VA's alternatives demolish the current US-based offerings (although there's word that the Panasonic eFx system will be hitting US flights in the future). Utilizing a somewhat cheesy lobbyist website, the airline is attempting to garner public support to allow them to reverse the US DOTs decision to disallow VA from taking flight on American soil. But regardless of politics, the real news here is the plane's interior; first class riders get a plush, leather seating area with a flipout LCD, while "normal" passengers still get a fairly comfy looking chair and a seat-mounted 9-inch touchscreen LCD. Moreover, each passenger gets their own 110-volt power outlet (adapters, be gone!), USB port, and Ethernet jack. The VA-engineered RED in-flight entertainment system only rivals SIA's KrisWorld system, and delivers music, gaming, movies, and even food choices right to your screen. While some may find this tough to believe, you'll even encounter a full QWERTY keyboard, live TV via Dish Network, on-board email / IM / chat, the ability to create playlists and transfer them to connecting flights, and pretty much anything else you'd need to not want to ever reach your destination. So if you're interested in helping Mr. Branson make a few more billion, and would like to fly the friendly skies in complete and total geek heaven, be sure to hit the read link to vouch your opinion, and click on through for a YouTube demonstration of all the aforementioned niceties.[Via NewTeeVee]
wow and i thought jet blue was cool. I think i might actually enjoy flying in one of those.
It's Virgin AMERICA, not Atlantic.
No TK, this is offered on Virgin Atlantic flights. Branson wants to bring it to Virgin America as well. Geez
Hey, follow the link in the article "Virgin Atlantic" and take a gander at the side of the airplane....
Is it me or does the user interface on the entertainment console take a lot of cues from Apple's software?
I cream for Virgin!
US internal flights are APALLING by European standards. I live in the UK, and take a lot of 1.5-2hr flights to the Continent. I was shocked on my last visit to the States when I flew United between NY and Denver. The plane was cramped, the service was awful and the interior was about 20 yrs old. There are a lot of great things about your country, but domestic air travel aint one of them.
Boy, I'd find it pretty annoying having someone punching the back of my seat the whole flight if they were to actually include touch LCDs.
The only thing that I would ever find use for is the power outlet and the Ethernet port.. Most people who travel either have a laptop or some other portable device that they can use instead of this goofy idea.
Chris, It's just you.
I'm all for it. Just wish they'd make every seat first class.
First class is a way for airlines to recoup costs, it doesn't cost them much more for first class seats but they make much more money off of them. How can you squeeze money out of the rich if they don't feel like they're getting a premium service?
No koppite1, TK had it right. That is a Virgin America's first plane (aka the Jefferson airplane). Virgin Atlantic does not fly A320s. Geez.
ohfergodsake! why all the geek-bickering over some Virgin name? A virgin by any other name, still.....
See, this is why we need more stories on new cool Japanese female robots.
Just signed up, this sounds GREAT to me! Virgin is such a nice change from the other airlines... they are like the Apple of airline companies, delivering nice touches which you wish the mainstream companies would match. (and you pay a premium for it).
I'm just saving up my Virgin airmiles so that I can afford one of those flights into space.
hey, iguess its not just mobile phone contracts us europeans have the better deal with, ive never flown atlantic first class but have been on a virgin flight and they have one of the best standered passenger compartments of any airline. Butcompanies are always competing for quality of ride over here, BA have seats that turn into beds, 17" tv's infront of you, and a wall around you to give you your own space and bose noise cancelling earphones come as standered in first class.
Its all a bit mad really, but i guess worth it for those long haul flights.
The new Delta Air Lines jets have touch screens in every seat, live Dish TV, On Demand movies, MP3 playlists and games, 2 prong (US and Europe) power adapters, USB and ethernet. They are supposed to accept iPod connections next year according to Panasonic's website.
Maybe I'm being thick here, but what's the purpose of having a USB port at each seat?
what can I say, strength begets strength--Virgin Atlantic is actually 49% owned by Singapore Airlines. Bring on the goodies, baby!
Todd, you can charge an iPod Nano via USB (probably other models as well), and small devices/phones like the Motorola Razr.
Matt Jeppsen
FresHDV.com
He said RJ-45. Isn't that a phone jack, not an ethernet one?
It's both... RJ-45 is a jack that is used to carry both voice and data and i believe is the most commonly used type of cable for the above purposes. Cheers
I took the Virgin Atlantic flight back from CES the VS044 leaving Las Vegas on the 15th at 16:05 and landing at London Gatwick on the 16th at 9:13. The on flight entertainment system DID NOT WORK! This was a terrible thing, my friend was actually crying some parts of the flight because she wanted to watch the latest films.
And seriously, bring on the on flight broadband internet please. This will be totally cool to download and upload films on the flight. And drop the business class, it simply sucks to pay extra for a more comfortable seat, nobody wants to do that anymore, not even rich people want to pay for business class I think.
Instead, make some money selling cool tax free gadgets, have some on flight competitions (like 1st person shooter competitions, where the winners get a free flight and all players pay some fee to participate).. You may sell the GB bandwidth used on broadband satellite internet connection, though keep the cost low for an affordable HD resolution VOD experience.
The whole point of the DOT rejecting Virgin America's application was that they were too closely related to Sir Richard. So this type of article is counterproductive for those who want to see Virgin America fly.
Yo, can I get one in my house?
The chair/setup not an plane!
www.flippingrich.com
From the article: "Only rivaled by Krisworld"... Hate to break it to you guys, but they're actually the same system, both produced by Panasonic Avionics.
http://panasonic.aero/xseries.html
Of course, the amount of wiz-bang features in each individual system is limited only by the airlines' budget, and it does seem that Singapore Airlines has a few more features than the VA system (Open Office integration, for one)... the VA system does have a pretty cool chat feature that is supposed to allow you to send messages to specific seats, or send public messages to people who are watching the same channel as you. (I'm sure they're very heavy-handed with the filters, however)
I've flown Virgin to London several times. Got bumped to upper class one. Sweetest airline experience ever. The seat pod folded completely flat. They gave me jammies to wear. The upper class area had a bar. Let em in!
That beautiful aircraft is going to get old, seats are going to get ripped, the inflight entertainment is going to brake, the 110 sockets aren't going to last. That's what happens to everything that gets old. I can't wait to have some snotty 10 year old kid poking my head and wake me up.