Finally, mankind has the answer to that eternal question, how many coconuts does it take to go from London to Amsterdam? The answer: 150,000 -- converted into biofuel and poured into a special 747, of course. Virgin Atlantic completed its first biofuel tests yesterday with solid results, using a mix of 20 percent coconut oil and 80 percent jet fuel to power a 747 -- a first for the airline industry. There's still a long way to go, of course -- only one of the jet's four tanks carried the alternative fuel, and even Richard Branson admits that giant coconut plantations devoted to airline fuel probably aren't workable -- but despite harsh criticism from skeptics, it's still an impressive achievement. Branson says that although this test didn't use a viable fuel, it's a landmark proof-of-concept -- and that next-generation biofuels made from algae may one day power all our aircraft. Sure, that'd be nice, but we'll stick with tiki-power -- anyone have a drink umbrella?

[Via The Register]

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]

Virgin Atlantic has altered its sweeping policy of banning all Inspiron, Latitude, iBook, PowerBook, MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries from its flights, saying "If the battery is identified as being from the affected batch as identified by Apple and Dell, the battery must be removed. In cabins where the seats are fitted with In Seat Power Supplies, leads/adapters will be offered. Where no ISPS is provided or no laptop leads/adapters are available, the use of these affected laptops is prohibited." No word yet on whether Qantas or Korean Air has gotten the memo that it doesn't need to forbid every Dell laptop under the sun on their flights as well. But we've yet to hear of airlines banning Panasonic, Toshiba, and IBM laptops -- something that may be coming sooner than you think, if someone doesn't figure out pretty fast what the devil is going on.

Hoo boy, the fun just doesn't end with this little Sony/Dell/Apple battery fiasco, does it? Virgin Atlantic is now the third airline to take issue with Sony's exploding batteries, and is playing it safe by requiring the removal of batteries from all Inspiron, Latitude, iBook, PowerBook, MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. Of course, that includes a wide swath of laptops that aren't affected at all by the recall, but them's the breaks. Virgin was gracious enough to allow laptop use without a battery -- if you're lucky enough to sit close enough to an in-seat power supply -- but otherwise users of two of the most popular brands in laptops had better bring a book or prepare to acquaint themselves well with a few in-flight magazines.

If you're in the 99+ percent of folks on non-WiFi-enabled flights, and are well aware that cellphone use while in-air is probably coming later rather than sooner, Virgin Atlantic is hoping to grab your attention. As airlines helplessly grasp at off-the-wall gimmicks to acquire more non-ticket sales and provide a more luxurious and exciting experience to the customer, Virgin seems to think it has a hit on its hands. The London-based company has stated its plans to introduce the "world's first in-flight texting service," that has nothing at all to do with SMS; rather, passengers will be able to text any fathomable question from their seat-back television screen to an existing "land-based text answer service" that supposedly will answer any queries "within minutes" -- not a bad feature to have if trying to brush on a language before arriving in a foreign country or scouting out the nearest Engadget reader meetup. The company has suggested interrogations could arise about popular entertainment in cities, how to survive jetlag, or cabin conversation starters. While there may be more thrilling ways to get to your destination, sometimes a good 'ole fashion plane ride is inevitable, but at least Virgin's Q&A game can help you ignore your boredom (or the awful in-flight movie) when flying the friendly skies.

Air travel is about to get just a little bit safer -- though not in the anti-terrorist, heavy-handed security type of way -- thanks to Virgin Atlantic's impending fleet-wide rollout of a device that allows ground-based doctors to remotely diagnose passengers in medical distress. The airline has just announced a deal with Remote Diagnostic Technologies that will result in each of Virgin's planes being outfitted with the Tempus telemedicine system, which contains blood pressure and pulse monitors along with an integrated video cam, and transmits data down to medical personnel via the on-board telephone system. Flight crews will be trained to independently operate each of Tempus' individual instruments, but unlike the in-flight defibrillators that preceded this system, attendants will have the added benefit of live instructions from experts on the ground, if necessary. Virgin will employ the Tempus boxes until at least 2009, and claims that it would like to eventually see an industry-wide implementation, which RDT probably wouldn't mind too much either.

[Via MedGadget]