Recently in Aircraft Interiors 2010 Category

The purpose of the flight tests is to determine the ideal material for acoustically insulating the A350's cabin. Carbon fiber does not attenuate sound the same way as aluminum and requires a different type of insulation between the fuselage structure and the cabin sidewalls.

Airbus cabin office vice president, Jonathan Norris explains that if the airframer had chosen traditional insulation used in an aluminum fuselage, it would require more to achieve the same level of soundproofing in the cabin of a composite fuselage.

Airbus is evaluating different types of acoustic foam that will line the outermost layer up against the carbon fiber skin of the A350, which will then be layered with traditional acoustic blanket like those found in aluminum aircraft.

Additionally, the photo above gives some sense of the size comparison of the A320, A330, A340 family windows in comparison to those of the A350.

Photos Credit Airbus

LONG BEACH -- Yes, I could've called this post Video Blog: Circling Long Beach Harbor in a Grumman Albatross for the best possible search engine optimization, but let's be honest, it was kind of lame. The irony of putting a nose bubble out the front of an aircraft means that you no-longer need any kind of electronic distraction. Lucky for Row 44, Southwest Airlines, Mango (South Africa) and Norwegian Air Shuttle, the only forward looking glass on their aircraft is reserved for the pilots.

That being said, Row 44's Albatross rolled off the line in Bethpage, New York in 1951 and in a previous life served as a trainer for NASA astronauts. Today, the aircraft (N44HQ), which coincidentally has a near identically shaped crown as the 737, carries a Ku-band antenna and blister fairing to test the company's in-flight internet technology. The aircraft has been outfitted with glass avionics and a host of other instrumentation to test the antenna.

For the brief flight over Long Beach Harbor, I grabbed my iPhone 4 and connected to the in-flight wi-fi, posting tweets and photos as we flew. This particular Albatross was fitted with a glass nose bubble for a nearly unrestricted view, including straight down. I'll let the HD video I shot speak for itself.

LONG BEACH -- I'm heading up in connectivity provider Row 44 for a spin around Long Beach Harbor for a demonstration of their Ku-band technology which powers in-flight internet on Southwest Airlines, Mango of South Africa and Norwegian Air Shuttle.

I'll be posting twitter updates and photos right here, so stay tuned for some live uploaded shots of the harbor.