United Airlines (often referred to as “United”) is a US airline that operates both domestic and international flights, measured by fleet size and number of routes, it is reportedly the third largest airline in the world since the merger with Continental Airlines. United has announced that it will be installing a new domestic first-class seat that includes a wireless charging station in every arm rest. These seats will be debuting on Boeing 737 aircraft with plans to extend availability to 200 aircraft used in domestic flights.
So far, the adoption of wireless charging in public transport has been slow. While larger aircraft such as Etihad’s Airbus A350 and Qatar Airways 787, have made use of wireless chargers in business/first class for some time, adoption has so far been restricted to larger, long-haul aircraft. The aircraft in United’s program will only account for around four thousand wireless chargers, but is a step toward wider adoption in air travel, with other airlines likely to follow suit. By necessity, these will likely be Qi-certified chargers to allow for maximum interoperability for all brands of smartphones, however, the WPC has announced a major revision of the Qi spec, Qi2, due for release in the second half of 2023. Products certified to the new standard are targeted to arrive on the market toward the end of 2023 with added features such as magnetic attach. As this key feature will likely be a strong advantage for aircraft installations, and given the long design-in cycles, we may have to wait a few more years before we see wireless charging as a standard feature on all passenger aircraft. SAR Insight covers the wireless power market across many applications including public transport in its Wireless Power and Charging Technologies service.
The original article is here.
