7/19/1961: TWA Debuts First Scheduled Inflight Movie

DALLAS — Today, in 1961, Trans World Airlines (TWA) introduced the world's first scheduled inflight movie on a flight between New York and Los Angeles.

The movie 'By Love Possessed,' which starred Lana Turner, was shown to first-class passengers on board the Boeing 707. 

Three-year Testing

Cinema owner and film buff David Flexer had been investigating how to bring movies onboard aircraft since 1956. He later told Life Magazine how, after a transcontinental flight, he had realised that "Air travel is the most advanced form of transportation and the most boring."

This led to three years of testing and development to see if he could put films on to single reels and create a projector that could withstand turbulence while being light enough not to add any weight to the aircraft. 

Flexer's engineers were unconvinced and told him it couldn't be done. But after investing US$1 million, Flexer had proved them wrong, developing a 16mm film system with a 25-inch reel mounted horizontally to maximize space. His new company Inflight Motion Pictures was ready to take flight. 

Staying Ahead of the Competition

At this time, airlines were competing for business on their transcontinental services, and TWA was the first to agree to test out the equipment. The feedback was impressive, and passengers were soon flocking to the airline to experience the joys of a movie at 35,000 feet. 

This caught the attention of TWA's rivals, and soon Pan Am began to offer the service to its passengers. In 1962 Pakistan International Airlines became the first international carrier to introduce the entertainment system.

Evolution of the IFE

Some in-flight films were played back from videotape in the early to mid-1960s using early compact transistorized videotape recorders manufactured by Sony (models SV-201 and PV-201) and Ampex (models VR-660 and VR-1500).

The CRT monitors were mounted on the upper sides of the cabin above the passenger seats, with multiple monitors positioned a few seats apart. The headsets were used to play back the audio. TRANSCOM created the 8mm film cassette in 1971, and CRT-based projectors began to appear on newer wide body aircraft like the Boeing 767 in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Swissair and Alitalia launched the first digital in-flight entertainment systems on board their aircraft in 1996 and 1997. Interactive Flight Technologies, a US-based firm, produced the systems. Almost all wide body aircraft nowadays have in-flight entertainment (IFE) available as an option, however some narrow body aircraft have no in-flight entertainment at all.