Wasn't really intending it to be a retrofit - just something that could be incorporated in to future aircraft.
Anyone got any ideas along the same lines - little things that would make things better for cabin crew and pax alike? Personally I had a couple of ideas:
1) More people broadcasting the flight deck radio on the inflight ents system - United did it and for someone who was a bit interested in what was gonig on, a fantastic idea! If anything dodgy happened the captain could pull the switch, but for run of the mill stuff it can't be a security risk.
2) Abolishing the no smoking sign (or at least have it painted on or something) and replace it with a mobile phone sign (some companies allow you to use them on the ground until the doors are closed etc.), and possibly an electronic devices sign (who knows in the future!)
3) For the crew, how about making all the meal service stuff disposable (inc cups, glasses, trays), then you could just tip everything in to one of the big boxes, and not have to worry about putting things on shelves etc. You could then have a thing to compress it all down back in the galley and take up loads less space - this should mean a much faster serice and easier for the crew.
4) For aircraft with screens in the back of the seats, you could have the pax name displayed as tha a/c is boarding. This would simply need a message sent from the booking system, which should be manageable, and a bit of software tweaking.
5) On a similar theme, something I think would be very cool would be a map that zooms in from 'global' scale down to 'city' scale as you're watching it, as opposed to doing it screen by screen. (I know I'm taking this to some quite silly extremes but this is quite fun!)
(Ooh - gotta go. Sitting at work and my boss is about to come over!)
NW3