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The Japanese airline will "refresh the parts that other airlines can't reach," Mineo Yamamoto, president and chief executive of All Nippon Airways of Japan, said through an interpreter recently. The new in-flight amenity to be offered by ANA is a bidet. It will be an industry first, at least for commercial jet travel. All Nippon Airways will be the first airline to operate the 787, starting next May It has 50 of the Boeing jets on order. An airline spokesman said the bidets will be in lavs in both economy and premium classes on ANA's 787s. Japan Airlines will also have bidets on its 787s, but they will be for premium passengers. Given the popularity of bidets in Japan, the country's two main airlines wanted bidets in their jetliner lavs before now. In Japan, bidets can be found not only in the majority of homes, but in many department stores, office buildings, government offices and hotels. Some of the more fancy models have special add-ons, including a heated seat, remote-control blow dryer and massage function. But that kind of complexity would not work on a commercial jetliner. The bidets will be part of the toilet, but the pressure-activated bidet would only spray jets of warm water upward when the passenger is seated on the toilet and pushes a button on a control panel. The Washlet, as the combination toilet and bidet is called, will be supplied by TOTO Ltd. A spokesman for ANA said the airline had approached TOTO about supplying bidets for the Dreamliner but was told that it would not be cost-effective to produce Washlets for only the 50 planes that ANA has ordered. It has 35 Dreamliners on order and will take delivery of the first in 2008, after ANA. So far, only the two Japanese airlines have said they will have bidets on the Dreamliner. The Washlet is listed by Boeing in its 787 options catalog. Cleaning those 787 windows: It's not just passenger bottoms that will get a special cleaning on ANA 787s. In a recent briefing for reporters about the 787, ANA executives said they have persuaded Boeing to install an automatic window-washing system for the 787 cockpit windows. Those 787 windows do not open, so cleaning them from inside the cockpit would not be possible. So Boeing agreed to the automatic window-washing system, according to ANA. ANA will take delivery of six 787s in 2008 and six more in 2009. It expects to have all 50 Dreamliners that it has ordered by 2015. The first of those ANA planes that are delivered will be used to carry passengers to the Olympic Games in China in August 2008, according to the airline. Aerospace Notebook is a Wednesday feature by P-I aerospace reporter James Wallace.
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