Hooray!

The summer 2008 edition of the MOOM - the Museum of Online Museums - has been posted.

Pretty much everything on the list, from the Virtual Typewriter Museum to the Museum of Corporate Neckties (yes, there are airline ties in there) is pretty special.

But since this is a blog about (mostly…) airports and air travel, let me point out two online museums of special interest: The Stewardess Uniform Collection (746 different uniforms from 330 airlines) and the Online Paper Airplane Museum (800 free designs, plus some books and contests)

(Doll wearing Air France uniform. From the Air France e-shopping site)

Have fun!

“Sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.”

No matter what your pilot tells you, taking a plane trip these days is likely to be irritating, uncomfortable and, often, quite maddening.

For millions of people it’s all that and absolutely frightening.

Despite statistics that tell us flying is one of the safest modes of travel, many people will only fly if they have to. Others are so afraid of flying that they will never travel by air at all. And when someone is too afraid to fly they can end up grounding not only themselves, but their families, their vacations and their careers.

Where can fearful fliers go for help? To the airport! In my At the Airport column posted on USATODAY.com, I profile several fear of flying classes offered by airports and by airlines, including the Air France “Anti-Stress” class that includes “pretend engine-failure” in a flight simulator.

Anti-stress class, courtesy of Air France

For a few months now, Air France has been testing in-flight data and cell-phone service on one of its planes. (I flew on one of the cell-phones-allowed flights and wrote about it in my Well-Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com.)

Now comes word that passengers on at least one TAP Portugal plane can send and receive e-mail and make flying phone calls as well. The airline has equipped a single Airbus A319 aircraft with the Mobile OnAir service and will test that service for six months.

On the test plane - and perhaps eventually on all TAP Portugal flights across Europe - passengers can use BlackBerry-type devices and mobile phones to send and receive emails and text messages, and to make and receive voice calls.

The Cannes Film Festival runs through May 25th and Air France, the festival’s official air carrier, has posted intriguing new film-related material on a special site.

Poke around and you’ll find excerpts from films “starring” Air France as well as a gallery of photos showing actors and actresses such as Audrey Hepburn, Buster Keaton and Sean Connery posing on Air France planes.

My favorite section of the site: the virtual paper flight attendant doll with mix-and-match designer outfits. (You’ll need to click through a bit; stay to the right.)

What does a World Bank economist flying to Morocco have in common with a young couple jetting home to Switzerland from Paris?

A fear of seat mates with cell-phones.

Air France is testing cell-phone service on one of its airplanes. I had a chance to fly on that plane last week and interviewed passengers about what they thought of that service.

Find out what they said in my Well Mannered Traveler column posted today on MSNBC.com and vote on whether or not you’d like to be able to make in-flight phone calls.

Through the end of June, Air France is testing cell-phone service on one of its A318 airplanes.

Passengers boarding this plane don’t know cell-phone service is available until a flight attendant makes an announcement or they look in the seat back pocket and find this laminated notice.

Um.. unless someone has taken it home as a souvenir.

New European Union (EU) rules make it likely that travelers will be able to place cell phone calls on flights in EU airspace as soon as this summer. Air France is already testing such a service on one “cell-phones-allowed” plane that I got to fly on yesterday between Paris and Geneva.

Technically, the service isn’t quite ready-for-prime-time, but passengers I spoke with were just fine with that. “No way do I want to listen to someone talking on their cell phone next to me on a plane,” one man told me, “I hope this never gets going.”

Will in-flight cell-phone service be offered in the United States anytime soon? Not if some lawmakers have their way. Read about their plan to ban in-flight cell-phone service forever in my Well-Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com.

On Tuesday Air France officials were in Everett, Washington to take delivery of the company’s 50^th Boeing 777-300ER airplane. The flight home to Paris had room for a few guests.

Highlights of the trip:

• A chance to see – and smell – a brand new airplane. Turns out, like new cars, new airplanes definitely have a very recognizable fresh smell.
• The chance to explore the upgraded entertainment system, with personalized instruction from one of the designers. Passengers can choose from 85 on-demand movies (I squeezed in three fresh French comedies on the flight between Washington state and Paris) and create personalized music play lists from a very extensive and somewhat eclectic list of CDs. The first screen of jazz and blues options, for example, included complete albums from John Coltrane and Ray Charles.
• By far, though, my favorite part of the entertainment system: Seatback Berlitz language classes, which provide lessons in key words and valuable phrases, such as “Somebody call the police!,” in 23 different languages.

Since December 2007 Air France has been testing a service that allows travelers to use their cell phones in-flight for communication services that include SMS and e-mail, but not for voice-calls.

As of today, travelers can also use their cell-phones to make and receive voice calls – but only on one Airbus A318 that’s used for various routes in Europe.

Seat-back leaflets and cabin crew announcements will let travelers know if they’re on the “lucky flight.” Feedback will be gathered to determine if customers prefer data only or data and voice.

For now, the system allows the downloading of email attachments, unlimited SMS and emails, and up to six simultaneous calls. But OnAir, the company providing the service, says adding phone call capacity is easy.

Hopefully not too easy….

For more information, read the Air France press release.