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Curious why you think planes surely have outlets in them? We're not talking about jetliners here. We could easily be talking about planes that are suitable for

Curious why you think planes surely have outlets in them? We're not talking about jetliners here. We could easily be talking about planes that are suitable for clear conditions only.

SomeHacker44 7y ago
My light plane has six 2.1A USB ports for charging use plus several others dedicated to avionics updates that can also charge. In addition I have three 24V cigarette lighter "outlets" which have two dual port USB adapters. So... Plenty of on board charging foe the six seats. Not hard to retrofit. I only wish I had more!
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  What's the plane and did it come with these or did you or someone else add them?
  - coldtea 7y ago
    It's trivial to have such things for your plane (talking about small planes with propellers etc used for hobby flying, commercial aviation of course would have specific requirements) -- it's getting them to pass the relevant regulations that's the deal. Eg. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ps/ipad_usb.html https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ps/ipad_usb.html
- onion2k 7y ago
  That sound less like a plane and more like a flying USB hub. :)
onion2k 7y ago
I know very little about planes and think of them as being very like cars, and a 12v socket is a cheap and useful feature in practically every car since the 1950s (more recently USB has replaced them) so I assumed planes might have the same thing.
tzs 7y ago
I would expect them because I would have expected that back in the '50s and '60s people would have started using their plane's cigarette lighter socket for powering things, just like they did with cars, and so people got used to having power available and thus manufacturers would keep including it even when cigarette lighters were no longer standard equipment. And yes, small planes used to have cigarette lighters. There's an airworthiness directive from 1979 that required owners of a bunch of Cessna models to either disable the cigarette lighter or add a circuit protection device. There's a copy of that AD here [1]. It includes a big list of Cessna models and serial number ranges, which can give a good idea of how common cigarette lighters were. [1] http://www.cessna172club.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=384426 http://www.cessna172club.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showfl...
repiret 7y ago
My C182 had a 24v cigarette lighter plug that was there when the plane came to me and I think was from the factory. Took a while to find a 24V USB charging dongle, but when I did it powered my iPad just fine.
coldtea 7y ago
Well, I've been to small Chessnas that did have...

Curious why you think planes surely have outlets in them? We're not talking about jetliners here. We could easily be talking about planes that are suitable for clear conditions only.

SomeHacker44 7y ago

My light plane has six 2.1A USB ports for charging use plus several others dedicated to avionics updates that can also charge. In addition I have three 24V cigarette lighter "outlets" which have two dual port USB adapters. So... Plenty of on board charging foe the six seats. Not hard to retrofit. I only wish I had more!

CydeWeys 7y ago
What's the plane and did it come with these or did you or someone else add them?
- coldtea 7y ago
  It's trivial to have such things for your plane (talking about small planes with propellers etc used for hobby flying, commercial aviation of course would have specific requirements) -- it's getting them to pass the relevant regulations that's the deal. Eg. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ps/ipad_usb.html https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ps/ipad_usb.html
onion2k 7y ago
That sound less like a plane and more like a flying USB hub. :)

onion2k 7y ago

I know very little about planes and think of them as being very like cars, and a 12v socket is a cheap and useful feature in practically every car since the 1950s (more recently USB has replaced them) so I assumed planes might have the same thing.

tzs 7y ago

I would expect them because I would have expected that back in the '50s and '60s people would have started using their plane's cigarette lighter socket for powering things, just like they did with cars, and so people got used to having power available and thus manufacturers would keep including it even when cigarette lighters were no longer standard equipment. And yes, small planes used to have cigarette lighters. There's an airworthiness directive from 1979 that required owners of a bunch of Cessna models to either disable the cigarette lighter or add a circuit protection device. There's a copy of that AD here [1]. It includes a big list of Cessna models and serial number ranges, which can give a good idea of how common cigarette lighters were. [1] http://www.cessna172club.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=384426 http://www.cessna172club.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showfl...

repiret 7y ago

My C182 had a 24v cigarette lighter plug that was there when the plane came to me and I think was from the factory. Took a while to find a 24V USB charging dongle, but when I did it powered my iPad just fine.

coldtea 7y ago

Well, I've been to small Chessnas that did have...