“Apple Inc.’s iPad won approval from U.S. regulators to display navigational charts for some charter pilots, a step that may speed the end of the decades-old tradition of paper maps in the cockpit,” Sonja Elmquist reports for Bloomberg.
“With the Federal Aviation Administration endorsing iPads in a test project at Executive Jet Management, a unit of Warren Buffett’s NetJets, the way is open for pilots at airlines and other commercial carriers to seek authorization for the devices, said Les Dorr, an agency spokesman,” Elmquist reports.
“iPad use by professional pilots would support Apple’s goal of winning more business buyers. The company’s total corporate sales may rise 51 percent to $11.3 billion in 2011, said Brian Marshall, a Gleacher & Co. analyst in San Francisco,” Elmquist reports. “‘This is mission-critical computing,’ said Marshall, who has a “buy” rating on Cupertino, California-based Apple. ‘For them to win this type of approval speaks volumes about the level of sophistication of what can be accomplished with the iPad.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The first time an iPad wannabe is found in a cockpit, they’ll be digging it out of the crater during the search for the black box. Exhume, indeed. But, hey, at least it’ll actually be thinner than an iPad for once!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Related article:
FAA authorizes use of Jeppesen app on iPad to replace paper aeronautical charts – February 16, 2011