Hot Topic: A Modest Proposal To Reduce The Weight of The Airbus A380

Recent news stories out of Europe tell of an expanding waistline on the Airbus Super Jumbo aircraft. By rollout time sources tell us that the airplane needs to lose 14 tons of today’s projected gross weight. This unintentional “super sizing” is normal in the development of an aircraft and airframers will tell you that the design teams are always told to “sharpen their pencils” as the aircraft heads to production. Obviously, the highly touted mini bars and bowling alleys are soon to disappear from the sales literature! IFExpress has a solution that could help the weight reduction quandary…lighter IFE is our suggestion. Yesterday’s IFE systems weighed up to 4,000 pounds! That’s 2 tons per jumbo or 13.3 pounds per passenger (4,000/300). We think Airbus engineering needs to look at the current generation of portable IFE offerings and couple the system with wireless connectivity. Installing the portable IFE hardware in either fixed or removable housings and using 802.11 wireless networks to update content and deliver connectivity should help drive the weight of the IFE system to a more manageable 3 – 4 pounds per passenger. If batteries bother you, add inseat power for about 1 pound per seat.

Low power, low cost, and less complexity are all added benefits of the Airbus A380 IFE weight reduction program based on the next generation of portable VOD players.

Hey, stranger things have happened!

kinda sound familar..

Tom