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I love airplanes. I loathe air travel. It seems that every trip I take is filled with more crying babies, cramped seats, delayed flights, and farcical security measures. What little recourse I have comes in the form of discount carriers like Frontier and Jetblue, who’s service is leaps-and-bounds above that of traditional airlines.

Virgin Atlantic has long been a favorite international discount carrier for those traveling to-and-from the UK, and domestic US travelers will soon be getting a taste of the Virgin experience in the form of Virgin America.

O’Reilly’s Artur Bergman got a sneak peek at one of Virgin’s spankin’ new specially outfitted Airbus 319 aircraft, and the awesome technology inside them. Not only does each seat provide 110v power– something regular business travelers have been begging for for years–, but the new planes provide USB ports for gadget charging, satellite tv, games (including the classic Doom), mp3’s, movies, and chat rooms. All of the multimedia is driven by a custom built linux thin-client system named Red. Additionally, each aircraft will sport two wifi access points. Who says low-cost has to be no-frills?

Now, who’s up for a ride on the Unicorn Chaser?