Power Plugs in Air France 747s (user report)

Plugging an Apple MacBook AC adapter into the AC power sources in
Business Class on Air France 747 caused the power to drop out after a
few seconds on both SFO - CDG and CDG - BOS nonstops last week.

In the first case I was the only "user" in the row; in the second case
there was one other Dell user, and I blew his power also (but he got it
back once I unplugged).

I believe these Apple adaptors are rated at about 70 W

AES wrote:

Plugging an Apple MacBook AC adapter into the AC power sources in
Business Class on Air France 747 caused the power to drop out after a
few seconds on both SFO - CDG and CDG - BOS nonstops last week.

In the first case I was the only "user" in the row; in the second case
there was one other Dell user, and I blew his power also (but he got it
back once I unplugged).

I believe these Apple adaptors are rated at about 70 W


Yep. The max current draw is usually publlished somewhere for each airplane. The
outlets are extremely current limited, in many cases requiring that you remove
the battery from the laptop so as not to activate the charging circuit.

In message Robert Neville
was claimed to have wrote:

AES wrote:

Plugging an Apple MacBook AC adapter into the AC power sources in
Business Class on Air France 747 caused the power to drop out after a
few seconds on both SFO - CDG and CDG - BOS nonstops last week.

In the first case I was the only "user" in the row; in the second case
there was one other Dell user, and I blew his power also (but he got it
back once I unplugged).

I believe these Apple adaptors are rated at about 70 W


Yep. The max current draw is usually publlished somewhere for each airplane. The
outlets are extremely current limited, in many cases requiring that you remove
the battery from the laptop so as not to activate the charging circuit.

Honestly, this isn't something I'd recommend, power can disappear for
moments at a time and without a battery, you're in trouble.

Instead, what I'd suggest is to first make sure that you're fully
charged before heading to the airport, or plug in while you're in the
airport.

Next, on the plane, plug-in and wait a few minutes for your battery to
top-up and stop charging before powering up.

This avoids the current draw, but gives you a bit of a buffer if the
power does disappear for a few seconds while in flight.

Robert Neville wrote:

Yep. The max current draw is usually publlished somewhere for each airplane. The
outlets are extremely current limited, in many cases requiring that you remove
the battery from the laptop so as not to activate the charging circuit.

I used the AC outlet on a Continental Airlines 737 in February and I
think I was at around 90W. I know that my 80W (continuous) 12VDC-120V
inverter can't run the notebook adapter in the car, but the 140W
(continuous) 12VDC-120V can, so the adapter is drawing something greater
than 80W.

I think that the outlets on each row share the same inverter, so if two
people had been plugged in it might not have worked.