March 14, 2012
Embraced by general aviation pilots for its numerous flight applications, low cost, and ease of use, the popular Apple iPad tablet is catching on in the more structured environment of airline flight decks, according to Aviation News.
To reap the weight and fuel savings gained from eliminating paper manuals and charts from the flight deck, Alaska Airlines issued iPads to 1,400 pilots, and United Continental committed to distributing the devices to 11,000 pilots.
Winning approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use iPads for digital charts and manuals in all phases of flight, including takeoff and landing, American Airlines took the utility of the tablet one step further.
Involved in each of these efforts was Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen, which has embraced the iPad as an ideal storage and display platform for its navigation software products when used as an electronic flight bag (EFB).
“What we find in the iPad is a really superb platform,” said Rick Ellerbrock, Jeppesen chief strategist for aviation. “It’s just ideally made for this kind of application for a number of reasons. The form factor, the cost, the robustness, the stability, the readability, the display characteristics are outstanding. It’s got a nice infrastructure for delivering electronic content.”
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