The History of IFE | Anytime Travel - Cheap Air Travel, Travel ...

Times are changing for the in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry. Airlines throughout the world are beginning to offer in-flight WiFi, tablets and experimenting with streaming wireless IFE.

But where did it all begin for IFE? You have go back more than 90 years to 1921 for the world?s first in-flight movie. Flying around Chicago as part of the World Fair in an amphibious airplane, passengers were treated to a movie called ?Howdy Chicago?.

However, airline passengers would have to wait another four years for the first movie to be screened on an international flight. The Lost World was shown on an Imperial Airways flight between London and Paris.

The 1930s brought about the first in-flight TV shows, with a media event shown on a Western Air Express Fokker F10 aircraft, as well as IFE of a different kind on the Hindenburg in 1936. Passengers on the German airship were treated to a piano lounge, dining room, smoking room and bar during its two and half day flight between Europe and America.

Fast forward to the 1950s and in-flight entertainment largely consisted of food and drink services with the occasional movie screened using a projector. However, in 1961, the industry changed forever with the arrival of the 16mm in-flight film system and the screening of the first in-flight feature film, By Love Possessed.

In 1962, Pakistan International Airlines became the first international airline to show movies, whilst a year later came the first in-seat headsets, which were developed for Trans World Airlines.

The 1970s would also be an important period in the IFE industry?s history; initially, with the arrival of Trans Com?s 8mm film cartridge projection system, which allowed for multiple in-flight TV programming and films. Other developments that decade included Braniff Airways introducing Atari video games and the formation of the Airline Entertainment Association (AEA) which was renamed as the WAEA (World Airline Entertainment Association) in 1985 and eventually became APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) in 2011.

In the 1980s, the arrival of newer wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 767 coincided with the introduction of cathode ray tube (CRT) projectors, which used LaserDiscs and video cassettes for playback. Later that decade came a landmark development with the first in-seat audio video on-demand (AVOD) system using 2.7 inch LCD technology, implemented by Northwest Airlines.

1989 and US company, Sennheiser, launched the first noise-cancellation headphones for IFE. Two years later, Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to offer seat-back video in all classes across its entire fleet. 1996 saw two major innovations in the IFE world ? live television premiered for the first time on a Delta Airlines B767 showing coverage of the Atlanta Olympic games and that year also saw the same airline install in-seat power outlets on all aircraft.

12 months on and Swissair became the first airline to install an interactive video-on-demand (VOD) entertainment system across an entire aircraft. In 2000 Jet Blue launched live in-flight satellite, fleetwide in all cabins. In 2010, the first fibre-optic embedded IFE system became operational on a flydubai aircraft ? this ground-breaking system was developed by Lumexis.

With this much innovation over the past 90 years, who knows what the next 90 will bring.

Source: http://anytimetravel.net/travel-guide/the-history-of-ife

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