If you need to test Wi-Fi signals on an airplane, Boeing has discovered potatoes are a secret to success.
More and more airliners are equipped with Wi-Fi, but as anybody who has tried using it can tell you, not every seat gets the same experience. One passenger can have four bars showing, while the guy wedged into the seat next to him has one, or none. Boeing has an obvious interest in helping airlines provide a better experience for passengers, so a team of engineers at the company’s test and evaluation center in Seattle employed sacks of potatoes to develop a new method of ensuring wireless signals are as reliable as possible.
Boeing’s test and evaluation center has gained recent attention for the 787 flight test program, but its engineers test just about everything related to the company’s airliners, including inflight wireless. The company isn’t saying much about how the test is performed or the kind of equipment is used, but it says the new evaluation methods measure the propagation of signal quality throughout the cabin more efficiently and effectively.
So a bit about those taters.
Much of the testing was done aboard a parked airliner, and engineers needed extras to play the role of the passengers. Sacks of spuds are cheap, they don’t need bathroom breaks and it turns out water-logged tubers interact with electronic signal properties in a manner similar to humans.
The method was originally developed by Boeing to ensure radio signals transmitted within a cabin were safe and did not interfere with aircraft electrical systems. Now it is being used to test wireless signals in a matter of hours. The result is better signal tuning to safely propagate a stronger Wi-Fi signal throughout the cabin.
With any luck, this means those of us crammed into 18E for a cross-country flight to Newark will exceed the speed of a 2400 Baud modem so we can download that attachment before beginning our final approach.
Boeing Uses Potatoes to Improve Inflight Wi-Fi
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Boeing Uses Potatoes to Improve Inflight Wi-Fi
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Boeing Uses Potatoes to Improve Inflight Wi-Fi
