Patent ID: 8376457
Filing Date: 2013-02-19
Classification: B64D

Abstract:
1. An aircraft, comprising: a plurality of wirelessly controllable electrical or electronic functional units configured to be interchangeable with one another and for use by passengers, each being associated with a seat or group of seats; and a plurality of installation locations for the plurality of functional units, each installation location being associated with a seat or group of seats, wherein: the functional units are removable such that they can be installed and removed or replaced without cancellation of an operating clearance of the aircraft during maintenance, each functional unit comprises (i) an RFID reader configured to operate in a non-contacting manner to identify an installation location of the functional unit and (ii) a device configured to wirelessly transmit the identified installation location for storage in a database in the aircraft, and each installation location has an associated RFID tag encoding information which can be read by an RFID reader of a functional unit and which identifies the associated seat or group of seats.