FAA To Take 'Fresh Look' At Using Electronics On Planes

March 19, 2012
The administration has not offered a timeline as to how long it might take to potentially ease restrictions on electronic device use

Attention technophiles -- and really, everyone. The Federal Aviation Administration is allegedly going to start looking into the (antiquated) rules it employs against those looking to use their electronic devices during any and all portions of airline flight.

But don't flick on your tablets, music players, and e-readers just yet. While the FAA is interested in retesting modern devices to see just how they might affect aircraft during flight, the process -- as outlined thus far -- is nothing short of laborious. If the FAA plans to test devices the same way any airline might (airlines are currently allowed to test various electronic devices on their own and petition the FAA for approval of their use), we might be sporting eighth-generation iPads by the time anyone's allowed to read an e-book during taxiing.

According to the New York Times' Nick Bilton, speaking to Abby Lunardini, Virgin America's vice president of corporate communications, the testing process for an electronic device requires it to fly by its lonesome -- no passengers or other electronic devices permitted. This process has to be repeated for each specific product within a family of devices, e.g. the iPad has to be individually tested, as well as the iPad 2, and Apple's new iPad, et cetera.

And if you think that's bad enough, it gets worse: Each of these tests must be performed for every model of plane within an airlines' fleet. It goes without saying that airlines have not been too keen on performing these tests themselves due to the prohibitive costs of doing so. Even the FAA, which is now taking the point position for building some kind of consensus between device makers and airlines to allow more flyers to use more electronics on flights, is tacitly acknowledging the difficulty by eliminating smartphones and cell phones from its new initiative.

That, and passengers would likely suffer increased harm by their seatmates were they given the opportunity to gab mid-flight.

It's unclear wither the FAA will update its testing procedure during this "fresh look" at "new and evolving electronic technology." Nor has the FAA offered up any timeline -- even a general guesstimate -- as to how long it might take to potentially ease restrictions on electronic device use.

According to Bilton, a little blackmail might be necessary.

"To keep things moving, the airlines could team up and each make a single plane available for say, one day a month, until the testing is done. And the device and software makers, many with very deep pockets, could foot the bill," Bilton writes.

"Any device maker who doesn't contribute financially to the testing won't be added to the new updated list of approved electronics devices on planes."

For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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