In the not too distant future, airline passengers riding on newer widebody jetliners may be able to sit down, strap in and log on. That's the intent of Honeywell Aviation Services and Matsushita Avionics Systems, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding for development of an airborne Internet/intranet system for widebody jetliners.

The agreement calls for the integration of market leader Matsushita's inflight entertainment (IFE) system with Honeywell's communication products and services, with the intent of expanding passenger services to include individual access to Internet e-mail and potentially other Internet services.

Honeywell Aviation Services marketing director Larry Bowe told Show News that while no airlines have yet signed up for the airborne Internet services to be provided by the partners, Matsushita and Honeywell foresee a large market for the system.

One reason is that most online services offered by airlines will "buy" their way onto the aircraft. Car rental companies, restaurants, hotels and stores are likely to pay for prime locations on an airline's website home page. Most data and graphics wallpaper would be pre-loaded onto the airliner's intranet to minimize the load on the aircraft's air-to-ground datalink system. Airlines would be able to better serve passengers by creating preference profiles for their most frequent passengers, according to Bowe. But he hastened to say that the privacy of individuals is a high priority of airline marketing departments, especially with respect to e-mail.

Initially, Internet access may be limited by datalink capacity. However, as services such as Inmarsat's 64K baud datalink become available, passengers should be able to have as much access to Internet services on FL 390 as they have in their offices.

Honeywell and Matsushita plan to enter into a formal agreement next month and begin initial product deliveries early next year.

By Fred George