Australia's Qantas Airways will soon test Apple's iPad 2 as an in-flight entertainment system for travelers that offers streaming movies over Wi-Fi from a central server on the aircraft.

The pilot program, billed as a âworld firstâ by the airline, will take place over a six-week period from the end of October to early December, Australian Business Traveller reports. The trial run will be limited, however, to a single aircraft, a 254-seat Boeing 767-300.

All passengers boarding the aircraft will be given an iPad 2 for in-flight entertainment purposes. The device will sport a custom interface based on a special âQ Streamingâ application that will let users stream content from one of five wireless access points.

Each iPad will be âlocked down,â bypassing the usual home screen in a similar manner to the iPads used as product signs in Apple stores. According to Qantas Executive Manager for Customer Experience Alison Webster, the devices will boot into the Q Streaming app, âso if anyone decides they want to âborrowâ one it wonât have any capability off the aircraft.â

Qantas may extend the iPad 2-based entertainment system to up to ten Boeing 767-300 aircrafts, and it may even consider deploying Apple's touchscreen tablets to its Airbus A330 fleet. For more details, see the original story at Australian Business Traveller.