American Airlines has been given the go-ahead to allow its pilots to use iPads in the cockpit.
Early this year, United Airlines announced that it planned to adopt a paperless flight deck and distribute 11,000 iPads to United and Continental pilots as part of a new electronic flight bag scheme. This week, American Airlines will throw a plan into action after receiving the approval from the FAA. ZDNEt claims to have received confirmation from a source that says the airline was just recently given the green light to allow the use of iPads (both the first and second generation) in place of paper flight manuals. AA is said to have flown thousands of hours with iPads to test the device.
"On Friday, American Airlines is the first airline in the world to be fully FAA approved to use iPads during all phases of flight," this source is quoted as saying. "Pilots will use iPads as electronic chart and digital flight manual readers. The airline will begin iPad operations on B-777 aircraft, and then implement across all other fleets."
By replacing paper flight manuals with iPads, American Airlines will be improving both safety and efficiency on its flights. ZDNet's source indicates that though other airlines (such as continental) have made their plans to replace their paper manuals with iPads, they have not received approval to conduct flight operations in all phases of flight.
It's ironic how AMR just filed for bankruptcy to try to cut costs and restructure itself as a company. Sounds like a poorly-managed company.
On a related note of distracted pilots: http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=4040
I can just see them playing multi-player Doodle Jump up there and missing their destination like those NWA pilots that were grounded for playing with their laptops.
Or Words with Friends.
Isn't that exciting?
And relevant?
No. From what I understand, the ban on electronics during takeoff/landing isn't so much about interference with traffic control signals (other than phones, which definitely could interfere), but that they don't want loose objects smacking people during those phases (and they are more likely to move around when the plane suddenly tilts up or down or banks in one direction).
Actually, the cost of buying several hundred iPads is a one-time investment. Continually carrying around up to 20 pounds of paper charts costs an airline over $1m in fuel per aircraft per year.
Are you suggesting that Android devices are more user friendly than Apple devices? I'm no Apple fanboy, but that's the dodgiest of dodgy claims. Apple's entire business model pretty much centers on user-friendliness.
$1m per aircraft per year to carry 20 pounds???? Let's say the plane does 10 flights per day (year right, real short distance, but to exaggerate my point!) for 365 days (maintenance free airplane). so 3,650 flights total for the year...take $1m / 3650 = $274 (roughtly) per flight to carry 20 pounds????
Your F'd up, don't make stupid ass comments about how much stuff costs airlines when you have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA.
Ummmm... no. They let you read books, but they scoff at e-books (happened to me). AFAIK, books can as easily fly off one's hands as e-books, even more so, because they're bulkier. It's only about interference (and sheer ignorance about what a non-WIFI-non-radio-enabled e-book is about).
They're assuming the pilots know how to put their devices in airplane mode, and also that all the passengers are a bunch of ignorant people... hence the double standards.
And, BTW, the chances of radio interference from handheld devices like cell phones are next to zero, since they operate on different frequencies than FAA equipment; that's why pilots are sometimes actually using their phones in the cockpit (of course, away from public eyes). They already know the risk is not there anymore (not with modern equipment).
Another example: they won't let one use their GPS during flight (even a stand-alone GPS) for same bogus reasons, even though such a device is just a receiver of GPS signals, which are out there anyways and being used by the plane's GPS itself.
Oh please any Android tablet is just an oversized Droid and any iPad is just an oversized iTouch. They should've waited until W8 tablets started coming out for the sole reason of being able to do more with them. Maybe they could've consolidated even more with a tablet running a real OS.
really?
Ok say it's a flight that goes to Paris, France...they can only do basically a round trip per 24 hours realistically (probably more then 24 hours with maintenance, cleaning, refueling, unloading passengers, loading passengers and waiting at airports for an open runway). I can get a ticket to Paris from NJ for about $520 + tax/fees so say $650 total. I weigh 150 pounds + baggage 50 pounds. So for $650 they will take 200 pounds and they feel they are making a profit.
But same plane traveling every day, so 365 * 2, 730 trips. At $1 million to carry 20 pounds of manuals for 730 trips comes to $1,370 (roughly) per trip, just to carry 20 pounds of manuals??? Please correct me if my math is off, but that's ridiculous. That comes to $68.50 per pound for manuals, and for passengers it comes to $3.25 per pound. Are they like spread the pages out and glue them to the outside hull to create more drag or something?