From black-and-white dinosaurs in a silent film to VR headsets - how in-flight entertainment has evolved

Settling back in their wicker armchairs, the dozen passengers on an Imperial Airways flight to Paris in 1925 knew they were in for a treat – an exclusive presentation of the latest Hollywood blockbuster The Lost World.

The flight from Croydon Aerodrome in south London to Le Bourget Airport in Paris was only an hour long, but so was the film, a silent black-and-white adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story of a mysterious land where dinosaurs still roamed, complete with rubber stop-motion beasts. It might seem a long way from the variety and sophistication of today’s offerings, but the screening 100 years ago this month was the start of commercial international in-flight entertainment.

Billed as "The Lost World Above the World”, the screening on April 6, 1925, indicates both Hollywood and the airline industry already knew the value of publicity. Imperial Airways, then only a year old, plastered the exterior of its De Havilland plane with posters advertising the screening, while the press was on hand to witness the bulky projector hauled on board and installed at the rear of the passenger cabin.

A glowing report in the French magazine Mon Ciné called it a “curious cinematic initiative … that will perhaps make the Americans jealous. The plane remained at a fairly high altitude throughout and the spectators declared themselves delighted". The screening, though, was extremely complex. A musical accompaniment for the silent film was played live by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and transmitted to the aircraft’s radio to be played on single speaker. To darken the interior of the cabin, the pilot had to fly though clouds.

While strictly speaking not the first film to be shown on a plane – in 1921 an advertisement for Chicago was shown on a flight circling the city – the 1925 event is recognised as the start of in-flight entertainment.

Unfortunately, an immediate repeat performance was impractical and for the next three decades in-flight entertainment remained a novelty. Long-distance travel remained the domain of ocean liners, many with on-board cinemas, and while TV, which became a reality in the 1920s and '30s, offered possibilities, the Second World War intervened, when the priority in flying was mostly to get home alive.

Film takes flight

By the early 1950s, it was time to revive the idea, and with some style. Britain’s Bristol Aviation developed the giant Brabazon passenger aircraft, bigger than today’s Airbus 300, and with a prototype that first flew in 1951. Designer for the transatlantic route, the rear of the Brabazon featured a cinema for its 100 passengers. The plane, though, could not compete with new jet aircraft, faster and carrying many more passengers for their size. The project was scrapped in 1953 because of lack of orders.

Finally, in 1961, proper in-flight entertainment was introduced, thanks to an American, David Flexer, who developed a lightweight projector capable of beaming a 16mm film on to a screen from a box in the ceiling of an aircraft.

The first client for Flexer’s In-flight Motion Pictures was Trans Word Airlines (TWA) with a New Yorker magazine article from June 1962 explaining: “By early fall [autumn], many airlines will be showing movies to both classes of passengers. First class will see & hear them free; tourist class will probably be charged a dollar or so for the necessary earphones.

“Seats in movie-bearing jets are equipped with individual earphones; if a passenger doesn't want to hear & see a movie, he doesn't plug in his earphones and he looks away. Mr Flexer pays close attention to the kind of movies shown in flight, sticking to the family-type pictures.”

Everyone had to watch the same film and the sound came through plastic pipes rather than the usual headphones, but soon airlines worldwide were offering screenings. The next break came in the late 1980s, with the arrival of the now-familiar seat-back screens. This was the time of the founding of Emirates airline in 1985, which became the first carrier to offer in-flight entertainment on every seat in 1991.

Emirates remains at the cutting edge of in-flight technology, introducing the latest version of its Ice system in its new Airbus A350 fleet in January. Described as the “next-generation in-flight entertainment solution“, it features high-definition screens, live TV and built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that allows passengers to pair with everything from phones to game controllers.

Future viewing

The majority of major airlines now offer a seat-back screen, especially on long-haul flights, along with numerous channels and USB ports to connect and charge passengers' own devices. But the future of in-flight entertainment may look very different. One reason is that the almost universal ownership of smartphones now means everyone carries a screen around with them. Some of the biggest US airlines have begun removing them on planes serving domestic routes, including United Airlines and Alaska Air.

Passengers can still view content by connect their phones or tablets to the aircraft’s internal wireless network. The logic behind this move seems obvious. The industry says each seat-back system costs up to $10,000 to fit, and with a weight of about 4kg, including cables, taking them out also makes aircraft lighter and thus more fuel efficient.

At the same time, surveys have shown passengers still prefer them. A customer satisfaction by J D Power in 2019, found “specific in-flight amenities that have the greatest positive effect on customer satisfaction are fresh food, seat-back games and seat-back live television”.

With long-haul international airlines looking to provide seat-back entertainment that offers more, not less, it seems screens will be around for a while longer. One of the biggest changes is satellite-based Wi-Fi, which enables aircraft to offer stable and fast internet even when crossing oceans, essential for gaming or streaming from the likes of Netflix or Spotify.

Personalised service

Singapore Airlines now lets passengers shop from an e-commerce site offering thousands of products that are then delivered at duty free prices on their next flight. Etihad, meanwhile, has developed the Jet Lag adviser app with Panasonic Aviation, which uses personal data to allow passengers to create a tailored plan to reduce the impact of crossing several time zones.

Even more exciting is the potential offered by virtual reality with some airlines, including Lufthansa and Qantas, already experimenting with VR headsets. These allow travellers to escape the confines of the cramped aircraft cabin to enter an alternative world, or use augmented reality to personalise their flight, for example with live destination information or meal choices.

One constant with in-flight entertainment over the past 100 years, though, is that nothing is free. Once it was the airlines that paid for content as a way keeping passengers happy. Now, shopping and Wi-Fi connectivity offer new sources of revenue. A survey of more than 3,000 people in eight countries in 2023 by global management consultant Kearny found that younger travellers especially would be happy to sign up for more than just the latest blockbuster.

“More than 40 per cent of people prefer to catch up on emails, chat, or browse social media,” especially on shorter flights, the survey found. Also, “43 per cent of 18 to 35 year olds and 30 per cent of those over 35 would switch airlines because of a bad content experience”.

The survey also found this same group was happy to pay more for better Wi-Fi and that nearly nine out of 10 would accept relevant adverts in their content. “This brings airlines a tantalising prospect of transforming their in-flight entertainment and connectivity from a cost centre to a profit centre,” Kearny said. The future of in-flight entertainment is not so much a lost world as a brave new world.