There is much to love about flying, but one thing many of us pilots love is the smell of coffee in the cockpit, although it sometimes has to compete with a whiff of 100LL or Jet-A from the preflight inspection. In the end, the coffee usually wins the day.
One company is looking to end that story by focusing not on the experience of the coffee but on the effect: the coffee buzz. The Joule bracelet is in essence a caffeine delivery system designed to send a slow but steady stream of caffeine to the end user’s system just as a nicotine patch does its thing. The benefit of the bracelet, in addition to being unspillable, and never too hot, is that it delivers that buzz gradually, over the course of a few hours instead of all at once, as coffee tends to do. There is an additional benefit to pilots, who might not feel the call of nature as soon or dramatically as when they’re downing the java in flight. The Joule bracelet goes for around $30 through a fundraising promotion on Indiegogo.com. And a disclaimer. We have no idea what the FAA will make of this device. They have so far restrained from weighing in on the risk of hot coffee in the cockpit, perhaps fearing a massive uprising among flying java fanatics, so maybe they’ll leave this one alone too.
