The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the most-anticipated wide-bodied jet of all time: Boeing has taken a total of 859 orders since 2004, and so far it has only delivered 14 planes. By end of 2013 it intends to ramp up production to 10 units per month, but even then, most customers still have a wait time of between 5 and 10 years. This isn't a story about the Dreamliner's composite body, or the fact that it uses 20% less fuel than a 767, though: Inside all 859 of those planes, each and every seat will be outfitted with an Android-powered entertainment system.
Boeing is offering two flavors of in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) solutions: The Thales TopSeries Avant, and the Panasonic eX3. Other than it being Android-based, we don't have any details on the eX3 -- but, rather conveniently, two days ago, Qatar Airways showed off its recently-delivered 787 Dreamliner at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK -- and inside there are 254 seats, all equipped with the Thales IEFC.
There are two classes in the Qatar Airways 787, business and economy, and they're outfitted with 17-inch and 10-inch touchscreen IEFCs respectively. The IEFCs are completely integrated -- all of the hardware is stored in the seat-back unit (there's no under-seat box). And the hardware spec... well, this is the bit that blew my mind. Each IEFC has an STMicro dual-core ARM processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 256GB (!) SSD. There's also a main server, which features 32 x86 cores (so, quad-CPU Xeon or Opteron), 128GB of RAM, and a further 4TB of SSD storage. Optionally, the Avant can be equipped with what looks like a pull-out Android handset (a Touch Passenger Media Unit) -- presumably for running Android apps that aren't suited to the large screen.
Software-wise, we don't know much beyond the fact that both the Thales and Panasonic units will run a customized version of Android. Given the time frame, we're probably talking about Android 2.3 or 3.0 -- but looking at the photo above (larger), which looks nothing like Android except for the three buttons in the bottom right corner, Thales is probably just using Android because a) it's free, and b) it has a large software ecosystem that passengers can leverage.
All told, a Qatar Airways Dreamliner has 508 ARM cores, 32 x86 cores, 382GB of RAM, and 69 terabytes of solid-state storage. Apparently the planes will also be outfitted with WiFi -- no surprise there -- and 3G GSM, presumably via a GSM microcell, which bounces phone calls and data off a satellite and back down to earth. You should be able to make normal telephone calls on your mobile phone, perhaps even without incurring additional fees -- except during taxi, take off, and landing, of course. British Airways is also expected to use the Thales system in its Boeing 787s (and in its Airbus A380s) when they roll out next year.
Now, here's the crazy bit: According to VR-Zone(Opens in a new window), the TopSeries Avant is 80% lighter than other IEFC solutions that use hard drives and under-seat boxes. Multiplied by 254, using using back-of-the-napkin math, this results in a fuel economy improvement of 0.8% -- or, assuming two flights a day, a saving of 528 gallons of jet fuel. In a year, that's a saving of $1.48 million -- which is rather more than the cost of 69 terabytes of solid-state storage. This is why, incidentally, airlines constantly refurbish their planes with lighter, more advanced furnishings -- and why the 787(Opens in a new window), which is made from composite materials instead of aluminium, uses 20% less fuel than the similarly-sized Boeing 767.
