There is something creepy about the passengers applauding when the plane finally takes off... Do these people not have much faith in powered flight? Or had they been sitting on the tarmac for a number of hours?

bpapa9013

This is cool. @xcharliemx: That is funny, and true.

Wonder if it shows anything when you are flying through a lightning storm. That would freak me out.

Sora57

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: coz they filmed it in the night, no flash here too!
:P

pradster

I saw this feature on some Thai airways planes, unfortunatly the cameras were either malfunctioning or disabled and a live feed was not available.

pradster

I've seen something like before on flights to Asia, but with cameras aimed towards the ground. This of course is a bit more interesting, could imagine some nice scenes when above the clouds.

hezz05

@SMG3er:
Actually a lot of 747 aircraft I've been on have a belly, or more correctly, under the nose cam or something -- boring doesn't even begin to describe it. Nothing like seeing miles and miles of ocean or ground underneath you in low res video.

Geraldo

Nuts. I only have two black rectangles.

SigmundTheSeaMonster

incredible pics & vid. it's so weird that it looks like CGI.

digitalhen

Can you imagine watching the landing and the landing strip is all the way on the left and everyone screaming "GO LEFT! GO LEFT!!!"

xcharliemx

Yeah its all wonderful and amazing, till your cruising at 30,000 feet and see one of the wings fall off...

eebs

this is the coolest thing i have seen in a long time.

DigitalReaper

Good thing they didn't install a belly-cam, otherwise potential hijackers could see Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal trying to attach to the underside in an F-117.

SMG3er

Cool. Yet sick-making for those of us who absolutely hate flying.

deadrobot

@DeLarge: On a second thought, if the black box saves the last 5 minutes of footage...

DeLarge

Is the camera a plane's standard equipment?
Anyway, it will become another boring channel on long flights.

DeLarge

This needs to be installed on every plane in existence yesterday. Now I finally have an excuse to do nothing but stare at the back of the seat in front of me! Take that, wifey!

novacthall

Someone is breaking the law recording this!

Noobs-R-Us

If only John Lithgow had this when he took flights, then people would've believed him when he yelled something about a man on the wing.

Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans

Yeah, this used to be common - but they showed it to everyone on landing. People freaked out a bit so they stopped doing it. Now that each seat has the choice to view it on their one screen i can see how this would make a comeback.

James

That's not a tail cam, that's the new economy-economy seating. One tier above sitting inside the fuel tanks.

And yes, the pillows are still 7$ no matter where you sit.

FrankenPC

Oh, I get it. They must have had one of these on Oceanic 815, and that's how we can see what those folks are doing on that reality show Lost.

Definitely beats Jet Blue's little map with the airplane inching its way along. Not the height of worldly excitement, that.

bah

I spent 6 months watching the underside of a Predator from 3000 miles away... and i didn't think of this?
Holy crap... i'm kicking myself.
This may be the awesomest thing i've ever seen.

theotherstevejobs

Pradster,

Pilots have the option of turning it off if they feel like it. Jerks!

farcast

"THERE'S A MAAAAN ON THE WING OF THIS PLAAANE!!!"

sakko

@ Traak

I took a South African Airways flight from Atlanta to SA in 2006, and the had these cameras. Even more useless when it's dark out, all you see is blinking lights.

jrog

As long as the captain is not watching a similar monitor in the cabin while holding a 360 controller.

Y2KGTP

South African Airways has these cameras on their long-distance planes since around 2003. They only make sense for take-off and landing, though, as you don't see shit otherwise :)

T.

traak

Wwwait, why are all those people clapping after the liftof? Germman passengers only do that after landing... Was it the machine's first public start?

Th3Chos3n0n3

Good thing I could see this from the safety of my office chair, because I would never see it on the real flight as my eyes would be squeezed shut, hands white-knuckle clutching the arms rests, wondering in the back of mind mind what my family will dress me in for the funeral if this take off doesnt blow to me bits so small that I cant be dressed anyway.

Curves

So the part where they say "please turn off all cellphones and electronic devices" is optional?

tinyhands

I'm pretty sure that the reason the wheel cam on the 747 isn't turned on is that the FAA has banned the use of the camera during takeoffs and landings in the US. Asian carriers have the cam, but only use it in their home areas.

jamjon

meh... i have seen this on my flight to Madrid more than a year ago.. on Iberia Airlines...

EL_RIEL

I flew an emirates flight a copule years ago, I don't remember what Airbus it was.

They had a straight down cam, and a nose cam you could watch through.

On landing, I had to turn the nose cam off because it gave me motion sickness, but it was an awesome view.

trekkie

@pradster: A live feed would be a security concern. They wouldn;t want you seeing what was happening on the plane you were on for at least five seconds.
Hrmmm, if I look out the window, the wing fell off. But on the camera, it's still on. I'm safe!

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

The pilot is totally playing Flight Simulator!

vee-media

this is great.. unless the plane is crashing, then it would be REALLY scary (I would hope they would turn off the feeds).

toyotaboy

@tonashideska: The updated version, not the original.

Barry99705

@tinyhands: Well since it's a UAE aircraft, who says they have the same rules. Besides it's at the pilot's discretion.

Barry99705

@Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans: You mean William Shatner? Right?

tonashideska

@trekkie: On a flight back from tokyo on one of those airbuses with belly/nose cam.
Just before landing the channel was locked on the cam for every seat in the plane including the big screen in the middle.
It scared the shit out of me tbh, and I don't have a fear of flying or anything. But seeing the ground come closer and closer and NOT being able to see what's in front of you (i.e. the runway only starts at the last second, so all you get is highways and fields and buildings until the very last moment when the runway pops up) is pretty scary when landing.

shinchan

@toyotaboy Depends on who is the capt of the aircraft at that moment and what their intent is.

morbo

Thank you. The one reason I don't become an airline pilot is because I enjoy the tail-cam so much more than the stupid 3-d cockpit. Now I can actually fly a real plane from that view!

I'd have a very large screen set up in the cockpit, covering up those annoying windshields.

I wonder what the delay is like.

tek_nic

They are probably applauding because for almost everyone on the flight, it is their first ride on the A380.

bandit

Sweet. I fly all the time, and this would be really cool to look at during take-off and landing. Cause lord knows they never let you do anything else.

KLanD

This is very cool. I can't wait to fly on an A380. But I can imagine the pilot will disable this if anything scary is going on like a strong crosswind landing where the plane flies a bit "sideways" until touchdown.

redman042

I'm surprised nobody has made some crack about MS Flight Simulator...

Chiper

Wow, that's awesome, I could put one on my Cessna... no wait that would be pointless!

stubbze

The video makes it look like at takeoff the plane's moving about 10 miles an hour.

Sora57

@Noobs-R-Us:
YES!! that can bring the plane down!!

once, I was stalled in atlanta with a severe rain, already in the plane and I started watching a DVD on the laptop. A stewardess appeared and asked me to turn it off. I asked, why? She said "it messes up with the navigation systems" , I replied, but we are stopped in the rain!!, she replies "sir, I'm am going to ask politely once more". What a fucking moron...

I wonder who was the IMBECILE that started this stupid rumors and those about cell phones and gas stations. FUCK!
How can urban legends become laws?

Ariel_Wollinger

Cool, but the first vid cuts off so early, I want to see it break through the clouds!

chrstphr

"Can you imagine watching the landing and the landing strip is all the way on the left and everyone screaming "GO LEFT! GO LEFT!!!""
Actually in certain (common) side wind condition the plane will be at a very odd angle in respect to the landingstrip so you probably have a good point there, it will look from a tailcam like it's missing the strip.

Wwhat

It would be amazing if one of the maintenance guys installed some kind of alien head on a motorized arm of some sort right next to the camera.

You're cruising along at 40,000 feet, then all of the sudden, a little pair of glowing eyes moves into view and peers into the camera lens...

Bonus points if they rig it so the camera detaches and falls off the plane. If it was wireless, and people could see the camera plummet to the ground, I believe we'd have the makings of a wonderful in-cabin video.

Even better! Pre-record the takeoff video, then modify it a bit to show one of the engines catching fire and dropping off! Hilarity ensues!

Mondoz

Nah, old trick!

Tail cam is standard on our Global Express XRS alongside with the seven other cameras looking to different directions. And the video feed can be switched by a PDA. (Which controls everything else as well.. like the curtains..) Don't I just love private jets.. :)

tonyjl

@Sora57: that's the sheer scale of the plane! I though the same thing too!!

Ariel_Wollinger

Too bad that the Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong is closed now. Otherwise this cam will certainly soil many passengers' pants after watching a typical landing there. Go to youtube and search "Kai Tak Landing" to see for yourself.

My brother works for an airline and he said any pilot who flew to Hong Kong back then had to pass flight simulator tests with multiple simulated landings of that particular airport. Then in the first landing for real, the pilot had to be accompanied by other pilots certified to land there. Just too scary for the general public.

pri_them2

You should take off or land in Juneau. Freaking mountains on both ends and one side of the runway, the ocean is on the other. Feels like you're going straight down while landing and straight up while taking off. The last time I had to do it there was a pretty dense fog, so I never saw the ground, even after we landed! That's freaky. It's also fun to land while in the boom pod of a KC-135. You're under the aircraft, and your nose feels like it's about a foot off the ground when you touch down.

Barry99705

Imagine saying (pretty loudly): Hey! this Tailcam thingy is awesome!

and after a while: WTH Just happend to the wing?!?! :O

Gonna freak people out :P

max_

Tonyjl, you work @ DeHavilland, or elsewhere?

Also, the Global doesn't have the cameras accessible to the passengers, that's what's most impressive to me here (besides the sheer size of the A380, of course).

Recoil

Aren't you supposed to have your tray tables in the upright position and all electronics turned off?

coreyfriedman

Cool...

I don't mind flying at all, what I mind is being forced into the coach seats designed to be used by a midget 8 year old, having to go through security when they close down half the lanes on a busy moment (happened in Philly, two trans-atlantic flights packed to the gills got to the checkpoint at the same time, right after the dumbass in Atlanta tried to bring back a pipe bomb as a souvineir, and they had the A/C broken, hundreds and hundreds of bodies packed in this space, some idiot lady getting all mad when someone called her ma'am and told her to get in line [she wanted to look around she said, as she wandered next to the line] and half the lanes were closed) and I hate it when the kid that is always around you wont stop crying the whole flight. Other than that, flying is nice.

Con Seannery

Smoke starts coming out the engine and they cut the feed. That'll calm the passengers.

Wraithen

@Barry99705: It's an international rule, you have to comply to theses rules if you want to use normal airports ( especially if you want to land in the US )

@Ariel_Wollinger: there is basically two reason why they enforce these rules:

1) they want your full attention, as taxi, take off and landing are the most dangerous part of the flight. if there is a fire, or a wrong maneuver that cause the plane to hit another, you have to be focused, to exit the plane as quickly as possible. if you have ear buds, or have a laptop on your lap, you might take more time to comply with the instructions.

2) is your computer correctly shielded so that it does not emit strong electromagnetic waves? can the steward tell? no, we can't, so rather than shortlisting the electronic device that are ok to handle during takeoff, they say everything is forbidden. it's usually rather short, so people don't bother... in your case it's bothering

3) you'll take off as soon as there is a possibility to do so. If the window of opportunity is short, it takes time to ask 200 people in the aircraft to comply as we are departing! so while they are waiting this maybe short window, they make everybody ready to do so

On a side note, it's the RULE end of story. If the company do not do their best to comply, they could face a hefty fine.

Kanchi

Over safety.... kind of like putting warning labels all over your car or boat. doesn't help anybody except the company from lawsuits.

aeroworks

myhtbusters did something on this. Normaly these things "could" interfere if right next to the sensitive electronics. in an un-shielded environment. but on an aircraft everything is shielded and doesn't do a damn thing. maybe if you had a device specifically made to interfere it might cause a fluctuation in a needle on the vor indicator.. but wouldn't make the plane crash or blow up.. even if someone managed to throw out crazy EF and made radio navigation impossible, they would just use there primary GPS.. so no big whoop. I am sure these rules meant something 20 years ago but now days its just ridiculess.

aeroworks

I heard about something lik this it was how people near airports complained that emirates was incvading their privacy with a nose cam.

Yeebles

Well, now we know how Boeing can accomodate passengers of its Blended Wing Body aircraft, where the vast majority of those on the plane won't have a window seat.

macserv

@Sora57:

It's a feature of the new Airbus 380, they built it to be fuel efficient, so it can take off at 10mph.

Hardcore1

@Wwhat: Yeah, the first crabbed landing is going to cause mass panic onboard. I hope they can turn those cameras off from the cockpit.

macserv

Weird... They had the same setup on an Iberia flight i was on last year but it was on the big screen of the 747. They showed both take-off and landing. Best in-flight programming ever.

adamgetsawesome

I think this might be more interesting if you're on the plane and can feel what's happening while you watch. Watching it second hand really isn't that interesting... This reminds me of being able to listen to the cockpit chatter on United flights. It was interesting in that you could hear the tower instructions to the pilot and then feel the plane move as the pilot responded to the towers instructions. But listening to the chatter alone would be quite boring.

YachneCater