United Is The First Major Carrier To Replace Paper Flight Manuals With The iPad

In a press release today, United Airlines announced they are introducing paperless aeronautical navigation charts, that will be used on the iPad. This is said to enhance efficiency, save fuel and improve safety. The iPads will have Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck installed. This is a premier app that provides pilots with interactive navigational information which is data driven and provided at the exact time a pilot needs the information. Captain Fred Abbott, the senior vice president of flight operations for United said: "The introduction of iPads ensures our pilots have essential and real-time information at their fingertips at all times throughout the flight." Pilots will now be able to access the information they need quickly, without thumbing through several pieces of paper that clutter the flight deck. Flight material updates will download immediately to the iPad instead of waiting for paper updates to be printed. It is believed that this new iPad integration will save 16 million sheets of paper and 326,000 gallons of jet fuel per year. Each 1.5 pound iPad will replace approximately 38 pounds of paper that goes into a pilot’s flight bag. Appropriately named, the new system will be called EFB, which stands for Electronic Flight Bag. United Airlines will be deploying 11,000 iPads to all United and Continental pilots. Distribution has already begun, and all pilots should have one by the end of the year.  

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