Trans Com Mark IV

• In 1972, Trans Com presented the Mark IV Super 8, a cartridge projector for inflight movies projection with optical sound and 300W Xenon lamp.

• Projector designeed by Lonnie Webber. "He began his airline career as a systems engineer for McDonnell-Douglas and joined the newly formed Trans Com in 1970. Webber was the chief contributor in the development of the revolutionary Super 8 mm, self-loading, endless loop film cartridge and Trans Com’s MKIV Super 8mm projector. These developments let flight attendants change movies inflight for the first time, revolutionizing the IFE industry." (Extract from the 'Industry News-Win' magazine of WAEA, Word Airline Entertainment Association, 9 September 2008, page 6).

• Trans Com began the inflight movies business in 1972. At that time films on airplanes were being shown in 16mm. This system was heavy and there was no way to rewind the film on the airplane, the reels had to be taken off at the end of each showing to be rewound. As part of the solution, they then developed a lightweight film cartridge that features a rewind and automatic stop at the end. Trans Com developed the Mark IV projector and introduced the Super 8 in the inflight entertainment business. In 1982, three companies were the most important in inflight movies business: Trans Com, Inflight Motion Pictures and Avicom (division of Bell & Howell). (Data assembled from 'Boxoffice' magazine, october 1982, pp 12-13).

• Trans Com developed a method for a second optical soundtrack that was only 0.22 mm wide and ran between the film perforation and the film edge. A special audio compression technology had to be applied for having an acceptable listening experience. Thus one movie could be in two languages, and they saved weight and money. At the peak of their success, Trans Com made more than 5,500 cassettes per month that were projected by 47 airlines with a fleet of 467 passenger jets." (Data from Film in Flieger, 'Schmalfilm' magazine, April 2004, Germany, pp 35-43).

• "The inflight entertainment industry was about to be "scooped". Several entrepreneurs in California decided not to be intimidated by Mr. Flexer in New York. He had done an admirable job of introducing inflight movies onboard airplanes, but those cumbersome, large reels of 16mm film were a constant problem. Enter the much smaller format of Super 8mm ilm. A system of loading more compact 8mm film into a cassette was developed. Using it was easy and not too far removed from the ease of placing a VHS cassette into a slot and having a VCR play it. It was no longer necessary for aircraft mechanics or film technicians to come onboard an airplane at the conclusion of every flight and change those large film reels. The new California company worked out a much smaller projection system, and the simple, selffeeding, endless loop type cartridge revolutionized the industry. That company... known as Trans Com ... expanded greatly as a result of their innovative 8mm system introduced in 1971. With their 8mm system and, later, video systems, Trans Com became the largest suppliers of inflight entertainment hardware and programming to the world's airlines. In the early days of this company, Sundstrand Corporation had a major investment in Trans Com and, to protect that investment, they assigned one of their young bright corporate stars to lead that new enterprise. Enter onto the scene, a man who soon to become an icon in the young industry … John Landstrom. One of the earliest and most astute things that Landstrom did was to lure Bob Kitson from Bell & Howell to Trans Com. The Landstrom/Kitson team were soon to create a major change in the business." (Extratcs from A History of Inflight Entertainment, by John Norman White, 1994).

• The manufacturers of inflight movies projectors were Bell & Howell, Fairchild, General Audio-Visual (GAVI),  Inflight Motion Pictures and Trans Com.