1. A method for operating a network data processing system on an aircraft comprising: performing a number of operations in a virtual machine on the aircraft, wherein the virtual machine runs on a processor unit in the network data processing system on the aircraft to create a simulated computer environment and wherein the virtual machine accesses resources of the processor unit for performing the number of operations using a host operating system on the processor unit; identifying, by the network data processing system, a current state of the aircraft; and managing the running of the virtual machine based on the current state of the aircraft and a policy for managing the virtual machine for different states of the aircraft.