In-flight entertainment

In-flight entertainment (IFE) refers to audio-visual equipment available to aircraft passengers during a flight. Frequently managed by content service providers, the types of in-flight entertainment devices and their content vary significantly based on the airline, aircraft type, and geographic region. In addition to entertainment content, these systems may offer various value-added services and informational functions, such as flight connection details, meal ordering, shopping, services options, and the presentation of safety videos, etc.

During the early years of air travel in the 1920s, in-flight entertainment took the form of movies that were initially shown on a large screen. With advancements in digital technology over the decades, personal IFE display screens became prevalent during the 1990s, when demand for better IFE became a major factor in the design of aircraft cabins. The advent of small entertainment and communication devices also allows passengers to use their own portable devices, subject to regulations to prevent them interfering with aircraft equipment, an increasing number of economy cabins, particularly on budget airlines, have upgraded to In-flight Entertainment and Connectivity (IFEC) system. High-speed internet is gradually becoming available on aircraft, providing passengers with a more complete in-flight experience.

Design issues for IFE include system safety, cost efficiency, software reliability, hardware maintenance, and user compatibility.

The first in-flight movie was screened by Aeromarine Airways in 1921, showing a film called Howdy Chicago to passengers on a Felixstowe F.5 flying boat as it flew around Chicago. The film The Lost World was shown to passengers of an Imperial Airways flight in April 1925 between London (Croydon Airport) and Paris. Eleven years later, in 1932, the first in-flight television called 'media event' was shown on a Western Air Express Fokker F.10 aircraft. In 1936, the airship Hindenburg offered passengers a piano, lounge, dining room, smoking room, and bar during the 2+1⁄2-day flight between Europe and America.

The post-WWII British Bristol Brabazon airliner was initially specified with a 37-seat cinema within its huge fuselage; this was later reduced to a 23-seat cinema sharing the rear of the aircraft with a lounge and cocktail bar. The aircraft never entered service.

However, it was not until the 1960s that in-flight entertainment became mainstream and popular. In 1961, David Flexer of Inflight Motion Pictures developed the 16mm film system using a 25-inch reel for a wide variety of commercial aircraft. Capable of holding the entire film, and mounted horizontally to maximize space, this replaced the previous 30-inch-diameter film reels. In 1961, TWA committed to Flexer's technology and was the first to debut a feature film in flight. Interviewed by The New Yorker in 1962, Flexer said, "an awful lot of ingenuity has gone into this thing, which started from my simply thinking one day, in flight, that air travel is both the most advanced form of transportation and the most boring." Pakistan International Airlines was the first international airline to introduce this entertainment system, showing regularly scheduled films from 1962.

In 1963, Avid Airline Products developed and manufactured the first pneumatic headset used on board the airlines 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, which were initially available only on selected flights and premium cabins.^{[citation needed]} Pneumatic headphones continued to be offered on Delta Airlines flights until 2003, despite the fact that electronic headphone jacks have existed on Delta planes since the adoption of Boeing 767-200 in 1982.

Throughout the early to mid-1960s, some in-flight movies were played back from videotape, using early compact transistorized videotape recorders made by Sony and Ampex, and played back on CRT monitors mounted on the upper sides in the cabin above the passenger seats with several monitors placed a few seats apart from each other. The audio was played back through the headsets.