Not true at all. Every American Airlines airplane has DC power that is provided via a cigarette-lighter socket. It works quite well with an inverter and a standard power brick, or a special DC/DC converter.
I don't use it very often because all the cords that it would require annoys me, and my laptop has 12 hours of battery life. But it is there, leading me to believe that this is not actually a problem.
(I think the fact that it's DC power limits the number of people that will use it, because you have to plan ahead, and nobody ever plans ahead for flights except seasoned travelers. If it was AC power, people would plug stuff in just for the hell of it, instead of reading a book as they do now.)
I don't use it very often because all the cords that it would require annoys me, and my laptop has 12 hours of battery life. But it is there, leading me to believe that this is not actually a problem.
(I think the fact that it's DC power limits the number of people that will use it, because you have to plan ahead, and nobody ever plans ahead for flights except seasoned travelers. If it was AC power, people would plug stuff in just for the hell of it, instead of reading a book as they do now.)