United Airlines has announced it is converting to paperless flight decks and deploying 11,000 iPads to all United and Continental pilots. This is yet another sign that tablets – and in particular Apple’s iPad – are changing the way people access and interact with content. We’ve already extensively covered how iPads have impacted the magazine and newspaper industries, but nowadays it’s even more interesting to track how iPads are impacting non-content industries.
United is labeling the iPad manual an “electronic flight bag” (EFB). It will completely replace paper flight manuals for all pilots by the end of this year. In addition, the pilots will use an iPad app to replace paper aeronautical navigational charts. Below we check out a short video of what United pilots will see, plus some screenshots.
The iPads will come loaded with Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck, which United calls “the industry’s premier app featuring interactive, data-driven enroute navigation information and worldwide geo-referenced terminal charts.”
Here’s a quick video showing Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck in action, followed by a few screenshots to give you a flavor of the app. This is what United pilots will see on their iPads.
