Virgin America In-Flight Gadgets

[Midnight Mike]

Virgin America In-Flight Gadgets That Should Be on Every Flight
We’ve gone inside Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and the jumbo Airbus A380, but now transportation pioneer Richard Branson is taking on the high-tech heavy hitters of the U.S. skyways with Virgin America, which launched its inaugural flights yesterday. From lavatory lounge music to LED mood lighting that mimics the phases of a Space Age sunset, Virgin has decked out a fleet of Airbus A320’s to make them the sexiest commercial aircraft yet—and maybe the smartest.

By Laurel Donaldson
Published on: August 9, 2007

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol ... tml?page=1 (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4220225.html?page=1)

[mirrodie]

Flying Chat rooms?

Branson is laying the BS on thick. If I don't to chat with the guy.gal sitting next to me, what makes you think I want to chat to the dude 4 rows away?

Unless its to shoot out a PM to the inconsiderate clown behind my seat, to tell him to stop kicking my seat.

And I like the hint that VA will get the 787. We shall soon see.

[Nonstop2AUH]

IIRC Emirates was the first to install the simulated 'phases of the sun' mood lighting, and it actually does help with perception of jet lag, I've experienced it on the HAM and nonstop DXB flights. It makes alot of sense especially for ultra long haul across multiple time zones. But I really wonder how useful it is for an airline whose longest flight is transcon where the time difference is only 3 hours. Sounds to me like VA did this as a 'talking point' differentiator as opposed to a feature pax will actually find useful. Still, they've exhibited some out of the box thinking here and when you consider the majors have removed most widebody transcon service (and the one that's left, AA, uses old aircraft low on features), I'd give VA a shot.