In-flight entertainment – from pneumatic headphones to internet connectivity

We are all familiar with those little screens on the back of the seat in front of you when we fly in an airliner. Together with the headsets or ear pieces, these keep us occupied until we reach our destination.

Known as IFE’s, in-flight entertainment systems have been around since passengers first started flying. After all, sitting in a tube, and the fact that not all seats have windows, what else can you do, besides eating and going to the loo every now and then?

The first in-flight movie was in 1921 on Aeromarine Airways, showing a film called Howdy Chicago as the amphibious aircraft flew around Chicago. Imperial Airways took this idea and started showing movies on their regular routes. In 1932, the first in-flight television called ‘media event’ was shown on Western Air Express.

In 1936, the airship ‘Hindenberg’ offered passengers a piano, a lounge, a dining room, a smoking room, and a bar during the two-and-a-half-day flight between Europe and America. As to why smoking was allowed on an airship that stayed aloft with millions of tons of highly inflammable hydrogen is beyond us.

On some airliners, pianos with playing bands offered passengers entertainment but stupidity was soon overcome, when it was realised the weight of the piano and the accompanying orchestra took up valuable space and weight, which limited range and fare paying passengers. Not fun was the idea of a piano running down the aisle during takeoff and landings.

After WWII, food and drink services came along with an occasional projector movie during lengthy flights. Playing cards were issued to passengers. However, it was not until the 1960s that in-flight entertainment started becoming popular.

In 1963, Avid Airline Products developed and manufactured the first pneumatic headset and provided these early headsets to TWA. These early systems consisted of in-seat audio that could be heard with hollow tube headphones.

In 1979, pneumatic headsets were replaced by electronic headsets. The electronic headsets were initially available only on selected flights. In the United States, the last airline to offer pneumatic headphones was Delta Air Lines. Better late than never I suppose.

In 1971, TRANSCOM developed the 8mm film cassette. Flight attendants could now change movies in-flight and add programming.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, CRT-based projectors began to appear on newer widebody aircraft, such as the B767.These used LaserDiscs or video cassettes for playback.

In the 1980s airlines realised that passengers were bringing along their ‘Walkman cassette players’ and then in 1985 the first personal audio player was offered to passengers, with earplugs. Passengers often took the earplugs with them, so airlines started making the passengers pay for these. Just as well, as you did not want someone else’s earwax when you used them. So, along came headphones, with noise cancelling headphones appearing in 1989.

The first moving-map system designed for passengers was named ‘Airshow’ and introduced in 1982. This system displays real-time flight information video channel broadcast through to cabin projector/video screens and personal televisions (PTVs). All lekker until, it goes wrong. ‘No signal’.

Cameras showing the flight deck and crew, plus a camera mounted on the tail were also bright ideas, until passengers became somewhat alarmed when they realised that the crew were eating different meals to themselves, and conspiracy theorists said passengers were being drugged.

The moving-map system information is derived in real time from the aircraft’s flight computer systems.

During the 1990s, the demand for better IFE was a major factor in the design of aircraft cabins.

Today, in-flight entertainment is offered as an option on almost all wide body aircraft with many systems connected live via internet. Some narrow body aircraft are not equipped with any form of in-flight entertainment at all, especially true of ‘low cost airlines’. Stingy!!! But, this is mainly due to storage, weight limits and costs.

With the miles of wiring involved, voltage leaks and arcing soon became a problem. The IFE system was implicated in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 in 1998. The solution, isolate the in-flight entertainment from the main systems of the aircraft. 

The truth of the matter is that IFE systems keep on getting upgraded as technology advances, and if you pay the money, you get the deal.