Apparently, they mod aeroplanes, too, and one US plane modder, LoPresti Speed Merchants, is planning to fit iPods to some of the light aircraft it soups up. However, the idea isn't to add in-flight entertainment options - accompanied by great big speakers and furry carpets - but, instead, to use Apple's iconic white box as a black-box flight-recorder.
According to Flight Global, LoPresti Speed Merchants will fully integrate the iPod into avionics systems. The music/video player's built-in hard disk is said to allow over 500 hours of flight-time data recording, plus capture of voice comms between the pilot and air traffic control, with data and voice signals routed through the dock connector port on the bottom of the iPod.
There's no suggestion that we can see of any hardware mods being made to the iPod - all the necessary controls will be affected externally. Nor do we know if the player is being ruggedised in any way to better survive a crash.
We are kind of presuming, though, that it will be housed in something offering rather more substantial protection than the slip-on anti-scratch skins that many iPods buyers use!
So, there's one alternative (and some might think, rather scary) use for an iPod. But what others do you know of - or can you imagine? Share you knowledge and your wild ideas with us in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle forum.
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LoPresti Speed Merchants - home pageFlight global - Apple iPod set to swap 'white box' for 'black box' as LoPresti launches data recorder version
