Cell phones during flight...

So, another one of my projects finally made it into the public domain.

Air France started flying and Airbus A318 aircraft in European airspace with the ability to use cell phones during flight. My company did the design for the system, particularly the "business end" -- the rack. My mechanical counterpart and I developed this rack to fit in one of the overhead bagbins of the aircraft... all within very explicit, tight restrictions and requirements from Airbus. With this system, we are actually certified to be placed on the aircraft on the assembly line - so our rack and the system is delivered to the customer (Air France, in this case) directly from Airbus. It's now an option when ordering planes from Airbus... kind of like the checkbox for a sunroof when ordering a car nowadays... OK - a so it's a million dollar sunroof option.

Of note, my primary achievement was developing a new smoke detection system for our company. It's pretty sophisticated, if I do say so myself. [pat on back]

Here's a link to a video of the first flight on Air France's plane that initiated the use of this system on the aircraft.

And, here's a few pictures. of the rack!