Boeing Uses 20,000 Lbs. of Potatoes To Check Aircraft Wireless Network Signals

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Boeing Uses 20,000 Lbs. of Potatoes To Check Aircraft Wireless Network Signals

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @10:41AM from the you-mean-you-don't? dept.

coondoggie writes "Boeing calls it Project SPUDS — or rather, Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution — that is, using sacks of potatoes perched on aircraft seats to test the effectiveness of wireless signals in an airliner cabin. Boeing said it was researching an advanced way to test wireless signals in airplanes and needed a way to effectively simulate 200-300 people sitting in seats throughout the aircraft."

12 of 104 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

So by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-19 10:45 · Score: 5, Funny

So did they do this test in their labs, or at a Five Guys?
1. Re:So by bondsbw · 2012-12-19 10:52 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Five Guys usually makes me test my lab.
  
  --
  All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
coincidence by pesho · 2012-12-19 10:46 · Score: 5, Funny

The fact that Boeing's customers treat their passengers as sacks of potatoes is purely coincidental.
1. Re:coincidence by colin_faber · 2012-12-19 10:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Haha yes I was just thinking that, FTA "The team determined that potatoes were ideal stand-ins for passengers, given their similar physical interactions" I've seen lots of sacks of potatoes in my travels over the last year. Some even snore.
2. Re:coincidence by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-19 13:00 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  If Boeing covered the sacks in lard and flew them to Florida, half of 'em would be married within a week and the rest would be cops.
I hope they used the 50-ohm potatoes by TheGratefulNet · 2012-12-19 10:54 · Score: 5, Funny

cause if they used the 75-ohm ones, their Starch Wave Ratio may be too high.
oh, and they have to be properly grounded. potatoes have experience in this area, so that's not usually a problem.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
"I took a spud, out to a see an EMI test... by TheGratefulNet · 2012-12-19 11:04 · Score: 3, Funny

...and didn't have to pay
to
get
it
IN!"
(oldie but goodie?)

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Re:Extra large sacks of potatoes by ColdWetDog · 2012-12-19 11:27 · Score: 3, Funny

Imagine a spherical potato....

--
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Re:Irish joke by kelemvor4 · 2012-12-19 11:46 · Score: 4, Funny

Yes, fries are made from potatoes.
Not if you go to mcdonalds.
Harry Chapin by SJHillman · 2012-12-19 12:21 · Score: 3, Funny

It was just after dark when the plane started down
The airspace that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania
Carrying Twenty Thousand Pounds
Of potatoes.
Carrying twenty thousand pounds
(hit it Big John)
Oooooof Potatoooooes
And if the potatoes get fried... by knorthern+knight · 2012-12-19 12:39 · Score: 4, Funny

...you know the wifi signal was too strong

--

I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Legless by Roger+W+Moore · 2012-12-19 12:52 · Score: 5, Funny

Sacks of potatoes can form a mostly human shape
Only if you ignore the legs...which would also explain how they estimate the legroom to provide in economy seats.