Your Pilot May Soon Be Navigating By iPad
Executive Jet Management is a charter plane company that recently went through an extensive approval process for relying solely (if the pilot chooses) on iPads for browsing all the charts that used to be paper-only. They used an app called Mobile TC, developed by Jeppesen, a company that has made aviation charts for years. After showing that the app was safe, comprehensive, and wouldn’t croak due to battery, pressure, or other causes, they got FAA approval to use it instead of paper charts.
Now, that’s just for that charter flight company, but Alaska Airlines too is in the process of evaluating iPads for use, and 100 pilots are currently testing them out.
I wonder, though, will the new generation of high-tech planes rely on external devices like the iPad? Or will they include interfaces that can be loaded with something, perhaps, more proprietary, or even… Google-flavored?
[image: Flight Control HD, obviously)