Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years, you’ll know that barely a day passes without news that some nifty new method of accessing the Internet has been developed, not to mention a bushel full of cool new ideas about what to do once you’re online. One of the newest elements of our growing dependence on the online world is wireless networking, or the ability to connect a laptop or palm computer to the Internet from anywhere with no wires attached and nothing more than a special modem card installed in the machine. The aviation world is beginning to take a hard look at this technology, but this time business aviation is not on the cutting edge, taking a backseat to the airlines.
At a recent World Airline Entertainment Association conference, Connexion by Boeing’s chief technology officer, Robert Dietterle, predicted, “In the future, wireless will be in every laptop and personal digital assistant (wireless networks cannot currently be accessed through a PDA). There will be a seamless integration and convergence of wireless connectivity and personal electronic devices (PEDs) so people are always connected, up-to-date and even more dependent on connectivity. The world will transition from always off to always on.” Phoenix-based Synergy Research Group expects the wireless networking market to have reached $2.2 billion in annual sales by the end of this year.
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