Boeing had a business that did this; its only customer was Lufthansa, which had wireless internet on all its long-haul flights for two or three years, until about two years ago. Boeing, having failed to sell the business, scrapped it. It's a great distraction on long trips, and the monopoly pricing opportunity is significant. I believe the new versions don't allow voice applications like Skype, so there's no long distance phone calling. (Lufthansa was also first, as I recall, with the air phone in the late seventies or early eighties. No one to my knowledge ever complained about in-flight phone conversations with air phone service. That makes it a little hard to understand why everyone is so hostile to the idea of cellphone service on airplanes. The likely difference: price. At regular cell phone rates, there'd be a lot more chatter.)

People are hostile to cell phone service on airplanes because there's no place to escape the banal and intrusive conversations ("Guess where I'm calling from?" "I'm calling to get my mammogram results.") , except perhaps a restroom if one is vacant. At least on the bus/Max/streetcar you can move to the other end of the car or even get off to get away from other people's mindless lack of consideration.

If they make the music headsets freely available, as they used to be, I could live with hundreds of mindlessly chattering cell phone users. It couldn't be worse than a couple of screaming children. The losses are more subtle - to our sense of shared humanity and privacy. Business trip? The boss can reach you inexpensively any time rather than being incommunicado for the length of the flight. Person next to you look like someone you'd like to meet? Forget the conversation, they just picked up another phone call or logged onto their laptop.
Even a short time ago one could walk into a cafe in Portland and (if mutually agreeable) strike up a conversation with a fellow diner. This morning I walked into the Dragonfly on NW Thurman and each person in the room was sitting alone at a table staring at the screen of his or her laptop. Nobody even looked up.

It would be nice if people didn't feel that they have to put up defenses against boorish behavior such as long, loud, inappropriate cell phone conversations in public places. I, too, mourn the loss of social graces.

Can't wait 'til one of these flights gets on it.

Single-Engine Cessna Crashes Into Bush, TheOnionIssue 45•02 | January 6, 2009

CAMP DAVID, MD — The Federal Aviation Administration said engine failure was to blame for a pilot losing control of a four-seater Cessna aircraft that crashed head-on into President Bush Thursday. According to the FAA report, the nose of the Cessna 350 impacted with the president's face at 110 mph, instantly killing pilot James Morris, 45. Bush reportedly suffered third-degree burns on 95 percent of his body, a broken spine, 20 shattered ribs, one collapsed lung, a basilar skull fracture, and minor leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. Bush, who had been hiking alone in an isolated region of the 125-acre presidential retreat before the accident, was trapped under the burning engine block for 45 minutes before rescue crews reached the crash site. While doctors said they worked swiftly to remove the smoldering wreckage from the president's body, much of the plane's burning debris had already fused to his skeleton before he could be airlifted from the scene. Bush is resting comfortably at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

^I like Bush about as much as a zit right on the lip, but I don't get the humor in the above post?

I guess I just don't get theOnion.

Most of the Onion's good stuff, at least what I've seen, bites, but is funny in an arresting way. I remember in particular the headline some years ago when the issue of clerical pedophilia was front-page news: "Pope Forgives Molested Children". Not exactly funny, except unforgettably so in a cynical way. The quoted piece above is just sick, and I don't mean that as a compliment.