iPads for cockpits, GA next?

Boeing is pitching iPad-based navigation charts to airlines as an alternative to carrying volumes of paper manuals in cockpits as a new generation of pilots that is more comfortable with modern gadgets takes to the skies.

"Everybody's looking at it (in Asia). Nobody's yet pulled the trigger, they're trying to understand the value, trying to close their business case," Sherry Carbary, the vice president for flight services at Boeing Commercial Aviation Services told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

United Continental Holdings Inc. has bought 11,000 units of the device manufactured by Apple Inc. and Alaska Airlines has done away with paper manuals, Carbary said.

Airlines can simply download the application from the iTunes Store of Apple and get instrument charts and airport diagrams from Jeppesen, a Boeing unit, directly on the iPad.

Updates will be automatically added to the application, making the process completely paper-less. Jeppesen will offer similar applications for Android devices in the future.

Jeppesen is the world's biggest navigational information, operations management solutions and flight training products and services provider by number of users. Pilots, ship operators and railway companies use Jeppesen charts and data for navigation.

Carbary, who oversees Boeing's flight crew, maintenance and cabin safety training as also navigation and crew operations services, said pilots can use the tablet computer in their "down time" while on the flight deck to refresh themselves on the latest updates to manuals or for training.

It can't be long before we see widespread iPad applications for the GA sector.

"From a pilot's perspective, you can be much more productive because you can not only look at your navigation charts while you are flying ... you can go and review your manuals. So, you could actually even do some of your training while you are flying," she said. "That's the philosophy and a lot of airlines are looking at it."