Crew mobile device-based content loader for entertainment system

A system for wirelessly distributing data to an in-flight entertainment system of an aircraft, the system comprising:

• a remote content server on which the data is stored;
• and
• one or more content loader devices each assigned to a flight crew member and each including:
• a data retrieval module that announces an availability to accept the data from the remote content server upon establishing a remote data communications link to a wide area network connected to the remote content server, in response to the announcement the remote content server selectively transmitting the data to a specific one of the one or more content loader devices based upon a crewmember manifest maintained by the remote content server associating the specific one of the one or more content loader devices with the aircraft;
• and
• a data loading module that transmits the data to the in-flight entertainment system over a local wireless data communications link to the in-flight entertainment system.

A method for distributing data to an in-flight entertainment system of an aircraft, the method comprising:

• receiving, on a content server computer system over a first remote data communications link, a first availability announcement from a first content loader device issued to a first aircraft crewmember, the first availability announcement including a first device identifier associated with the first content loader device;
• correlating the first device identifier with an aircraft identifier listed in a crewmember manifest stored on the content server computer system;
• and
• transmitting one or more first segments of the data to the first content loader device, the one or more first segments of the data being designated for transmission to an aircraft to which the first device identifier is correlated.