Hold up AirTran -- not so fast with those wild claims of in-flight WiFi superiority. If you'll recall, the aforesaid airline proclaimed that it would soon be the first to have its entire fleet doused with Gogo, but it looks like Virgin America has swept in to claim that title. We should point out just how unfair the challenge is, though: VA has 28 planes as of today, whereas AirTran has 136. At any rate, we're still thrilled to see airlines duking it out in order to get more WiFi to more fliers, and we fully anticipate that every new aircraft added to Virgin America's fleet will be lit from day one. Now, if only they'd allow Skype functionality for more than just an Oprah demonstration, we'd really be playing with fire.

[Via Gadling]

Here's something that doesn't happen everyday with legacy airlines -- an announcement that something is actually ahead of schedule. After hearing that Delta would equip its entire US fleet with Aircell's Gogo in-flight WiFi in 2009, along comes a release from Aircell that says otherwise. In fact, it proclaims that "Delta Air Lines is expected to launch service before the end of 2008." Furthermore, the company has confessed that "most major US carriers are in advanced discussions with or are already contractually committed to Aircell," which certainly bodes well for avid travelers who take issue with long periods of disconnection. Aircell is hoping to have its in-flight internet tech installed in 2,000 commercial aircraft by the end of 2009 -- talk about making the friendly skies "friendly" again.

[Image courtesy of Gadling]

The time has come, internet mavens... to comment on this post from 35,000 feet up, of course. After launching to a select handful of lucky souls last week, Virgin America has gone live with its Aircell-engineered Gogo internet service on select flights. As of now, an undisclosed amount of VA flights will offer guests unlimited use (with certain restrictions around VoIP, we hear) while in the air for $12.95 on flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for flights under three hours. The airline's entire fleet should be WiFi-ready by Q1 2009, but for now, why not kill some time tracking planes with live internet access? Fun, right?

So I took a little a break from working on gdgt to get on Virgin America's inaugural Aircell GoGo WiFi party flight, posting this at altitude. If you haven't already caught one of the early Aircell flights on Delta, American, or Air Canada, their now-active GoGo service provides in-flight internet. So far, as far as party planes go, this one hasn't been too raucous -- probably because everyone's been geeking out on their laptops.
Quick facts:

• The service is a shared high-power EV-DO Rev. A connection, at 3.6Mbps downstream and 1.8Mbps upstream.
• By April, 100% of Virgin America's flights will have GoGo service. Dayumn! All GoGo service is $10 for short flights (under 3 hours) and $13 for longer flights (over 3 hours).
  
• So far I've been getting about 1Mbps down, and 200Kbps up -- pretty good considering that this is about as pinned as the system is going to get. There are only about 150 people on it right now, you know?
• Latency is between 200-500ms, sometimes higher. Reasonable latency, though.
  
• The system uses 802.11a/b/g, although it's an open AP (i.e. no encryption).
• Speaking of which, GoGo claims they'll support VPN, so expect that to work. SSH is iffy though -- it worked for us, but they don't really want people SSH tunneling (especially to do stuff like VoIP).
• Aircell intends to block voice and video chat to keep things less obnoxious for travelers. It's working in flight though -- people are doing iChat sessions. But part of this inaugural flight will have live YouTube streaming, so one should expect to have this cut off later.
• BitTorrent works! It's not crazy fast, but I'm peering with about 8 nodes. I wouldn't expect this to work when the service launches.
  
• GoGo has a built-in traffic shaper that keeps an eye out for those using more traffic than others. If you're consuming too much, it'll scale you back (although no one has a hard cap). If you're the only one on GoGo (say, on a red-eye at 4am) then you can go crazy, you won't be scaled back. Still, I'm sitting next to my old pal Brian Lam from Giz, and I'd wager the two of us are somehow taking up about 80% of the plane's bandwidth.
  
• Virgin America isn't filtering content, so feel free to cast a glance over your shoulder and engage your browser's private mode.

Any thing else you want to know?

His preeminence, oh lordship, oh liege, (uh hem) Walt Mossberg, just returned from a US test flight on a small business jet equipped with Aircell's new Gogo WiFi service. He tested multiple devices including Dell and Apple laptops, a Blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo-based cell and found them to all perform flawlessly, albeit, at speeds ranging from 266Kbps to about 1.4Mbps. Typical speeds clocked in at 500Kbps to 600Kbps -- upload speeds were a more modest 250Kbps to 300Kbps. Aircell promises a similar experience on large commercial planes with multiple connected devices. These speeds were good enough for Walt to surf the Web and check email (both prioritized on Gogo's network) as he would in the office but not quite fast enough to deliver smooth video streaming. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending upon your opinion) the service blocks all VoIP services like Skype. Gogo WiFi will cost $12.95 for flights of three hours or longer, and $9.95 for shorter trips -- free for limited access to AA's website, Frommer's online travel guides, and select articles from The Wall Street Journal. It's scheduled to launch next month on American Airline flights between New York and LA, San Francisco, and Miami -- it will then head to Virgin America and other airlines if things go well. See Walt's head talk from the bowels of embedded video after the break.

So Aircell just nabbed itself the first and only approval from the FAA for air-to-ground mobile broadband for US domestic flights, meaning we're that much closer to in-flight internet. So far the approval just covers the Boeing 767-200, which means Aircell can start prepping equipment to cover the 767-200 fleet of American Airlines this year, but they're also prepping to cover the Airbus A320 fleet of Virgin America. Routes between LA, SF, NY and Miami are going to get priority treatment. Aircell's Joe Cruz was also quick to point out that this approval paves the way for future aircraft approvals, which certainly can't come soon enough.

[Via Phone Scoop]

This is it, today's the last day to enter our six days of ticket giveaways for our fourth birthday this month! We're treating six lucky winners to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below and good luck, because it's all over tonight!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Oh, and be sure to enter part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5 for another chance!

Sometimes even the plugged-in Engadget reader needs to pick up and head out for more relaxing climes. Well, for our fourth birthday this month we're treating six lucky people to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below, and good luck!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Oh, and be sure to enter part 1, part 2, part 3, or part 4 for another chance!

Sometimes even the plugged-in Engadget reader needs to pick up and head out for more relaxing climes. Well, for our fourth birthday this month we're treating six lucky people to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below, and good luck!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Oh, and be sure to enter part 1, part 2, or part 3 for another chance!

Sometimes even the plugged-in Engadget reader needs to pick up and head out for more relaxing climes. Well, for our fourth birthday this month we're treating six lucky people to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below, and good luck!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Oh, and be sure to enter part 1 or part 2 for another chance!

Sometimes even the plugged-in Engadget reader needs to pick up and head out for more relaxing climes. Well, for our fourth birthday this month we're treating six lucky people to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below, and good luck!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Oh, and be sure to enter part 1 for another chance!

Sometimes even the plugged-in Engadget reader needs to pick up and head out for more relaxing climes. Well, for our fourth birthday this month we're treating six lucky people to two round trip tickets destined for anywhere Virgin America flies. We wouldn't want you traveling in something that doesn't have power, network, and a seatback terminal, though, so you don't have to sweat about completely unplugging to get from point A to point B. Check out the rules below, and good luck!

• Leave a comment below. It is in honor of our fourth birthday, after all, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation -- but it's up to you.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. Although you can enter up to six times through the course of this six part giveaway, if you enter this specific giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get two round trip tickets anywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st, 2008, and are blacked out May 22-26. Approximate value is $599 per pair. You can only win once.
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, March 28th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

We weren't just talking with Sir Richard and crashing the first class cabin on yesterday's Virgin America flight, we also spent some quality time with the in-flight RED entertainment system. The experience shows a lot of promise, and offers up a hefty helping of media, interaction and convenience, easily besting other seat back offerings we've played with. There are also plenty of rough edges and features yet to be enabled, so we look forward to playing with RED in a year or so, once everything's up and running. Our in-depth impressions are after the break.

Yesterday we sat down with Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group, in the first class cabin of Air Colbert on the inaugural flight of Virgin America. Richard's day started with a rush through NY rain to make the plane that morning, and was losing his voice on top of it, but he was nice enough to spend a some minutes with us chatting up a few of his myriad of companies. We requested to speak to him about Virgin Galactic, but he isn't allowed to comment on the current situation due to an ongoing investigation into the explosion at Scaled Composites.

Thank you for talking with us today. Congratulations on the flight!

Thank you very much.

How are you liking it?

[Laughs] Well, I'm biased. And we've spent years and years trying to get this Virgin born and off the ground, and so many people have put so much time and effort and sweat and toil into it. Our competitors have tried to smother it at birth and make sure it never happened, but now it's finally happened. It's the perfect birth, I can't think of anything I'd change. She's a beautiful baby, has got beautiful eyes, and I'm very very proud of her, very proud of what everyone's done to get this.

It's definitely been a well publicized fight to make this happen, what made it worth three and a half years to launch Virgin America?

I think anybody who's traveled on the legacy carriers in America will know why people have to fight to try to compete with them. The quality of their service is almost non-existent. I wouldn't say that's particularly the fault of their crews, it's the tools that those crews have been given by their masters, or they haven't been given any tools, and the end result has been... If you look at any poll of the best airlines in the world, I've never seen an American carrier come anywhere but very very near the bottom. So, in a situation like that, it's right for Virgin to come in and shake up that industry. The very fact that we come in and we offer that equality will mean that will lift those legacy carriers, it'll be actually good for them. They'll have to compete back, and I'm sure they will. But, you know, it's up to our team that we always remain one step ahead.