Bose debuts in-ear headset for turbine pilots

The company’s ProFlight headset has earbuds with active noise canceling and Bluetooth, and weighs 4.9 ounces—about half as much as its current A20 model. ProFlight is made for pressurized airliners, corporate jets, and turboprops with cockpits that aren’t as loud as those of piston-driven airplanes. ProFlight has a retail price of $995.

Buyers can choose between traditional dual jacks and AA batteries, or a single plug powered by the aircraft electrical system. Bose will continue selling over-ear A20 models (introduced in 2010) for piston aircraft.

“We’re obsessed with doing things better,” said Sean Garrett, Bose vice president for consumer electronics product development. “Doing things better requires doing things differently.”

ProFlight innovations include a clever “double-tap” feature that stops and starts noise canceling in one or both ears, so the wearer doesn’t have to remove her earbuds to talk with someone who isn’t plugged in. The wearer can also select different levels of noise cancelation depending on how much background sound she wants to hear.

Bluetooth provides wireless connections to other devices for music or phone calls.

ProFlight is certified for use in commercial cockpits, and it can be worn with the kinds of quick-don oxygen masks turbine pilots may use during some aircraft emergencies.

Aviation is a small but influential part of Bose, a private Massachusetts firm with $4 billion in annual revenue. Bose began developing ANR in the late 1970s and developed its first noice-canceling aviation product 10 years later.

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