Virgin America, JetBlue, Midwest and Hawaiian topped domestic airlines in Conde Nast Traveler’s 2008 Readers’ Choice Awards. The results of the survey, to be published in the November issue, were culled from responses proffered by close to 33,000 readers who took part in the annual poll. The magazine released a somewhat-limited glimpse of the survey online.

Here are the rankings of the top domestic carriers:

1. Virgin America
2. JetBlue Airways
3. Midwest Airlines
4. Hawaiian Airlines
5. Sun Country Airlines
6. Frontier Airlines
7. Alaska Airlines
8. Continental Airlines
9. USA 3000 Airlines
10. ExpressJet

Virgin America’s top finish among domestic carriers in the poll mirrors its first-place position in Conde Nast Traveler’s survey of business fliers, which we wrote about last month. In the business traveler survey, Virgin America was followed by Alaska, Continental, Hawaiian and Delta.

Interestingly, respondents seemed to have affection for a number of carriers that have found themselves hard-pressed in recent months. (Frontier and Sun Country are both operating under bankruptcy protections at the moment, for instance.)

Readers, it’s been a bumpy year for travel, but we’re sure there’s still a carrier close to your heart. What’s your favorite airline for vacation travel?

Never shy about a photo shoot, British entrepreneur Richard Branson braved the heat of California’s Mojave Desert today, where he joined aircraft designer Burt Rutan for the unveiling of the “mothership” vehicle that Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans to use to launch tourists into space, the Associated Press reports.

Source: Reuters

The spaceship itself — which is about 70% complete, according to Virgin Galactic — will be carried by the mothership for a portion of the voyage.

So far, more than 250 people have plunked down deposits or paid the $200,000 tab to become space tourists. They might wait awhile, as there is no scheduled launch date. According to the Bakersfield Californian, engineers will conduct flight tests on the mothership this fall.

If you need a refresher on how this is supposed to work, check out this YouTube video of the launch of Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, which made history by becoming the first privately funded, manned vehicle launched into suborbital space back in 2004. It was after those flights that Rutan and Branson joined together to form Virgin Galactic to commercialize space travel, the Associated Press says.

* Apologies to George Clinton — ed.

Fliers looking forward to the prospect of in-flight Web access should be pleased by the prospect of carriers continuing their dry runs for Wi-Fi. Reports out earlier this week — via a geeky chain of online publications: Computerworld to Wired to Engadget — say American Airlines will run more tests of in-flight Wi-Fi “in the coming weeks,” according to a spokeswoman. From Computerworld’s original report:

An American spokeswoman told the Terminal that Computerworld’s report was correct. She also said that the program would be rolled out on AA’s fleet of 767-200s, dedicated to flights between New York’s Kennedy Airport and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

A few weeks back, The WSJ’s Walt Mossberg got a sneak preview of some of American’s new in-flight technology, which is provided through a partnership with a company by the name of Aircell. Aircell, by the way, is also working with Virgin America on developing in-flight Web technology.

Check out the video (above left). And if any Terminal readers happen to end up on a flight that tests the service out, feel free to ping us — middleseatterminal@wsj.com — with your thoughts, or a even a picture of your mile-high Web experience.