“USMC aviators in Afghanistan are using iPads loaded up with maps of the southern regions of the country to reduce their workload in the cockpit,” Tony Osborne reports for Shephard Group.
“Since November last year, marine pilots have been using iPads and more recently iPad 2s with digital maps, which allow the crews to search out locations in the region at the tap of the screen rather than flicking through map packs that are heavy and take up room in the cramped cockpits of aircraft such as the AH-1W Cobra and the F/A-18 Hornet,” Osborne reports. “‘It’s a game changer,’ said Capt John Belsha, one of the sensor operators on the KC-130J Harvest Hawk, which is also making use of the iPads in the close air support role.”
Osborne reports, “Work is now ongoing to get the iPads equipped on aircraft based in the US, so they can be used in training. ‘It’s all about sharing situational awareness and using the iPad is much better than using a paper chart,’ Belsha said.
‘It takes five minutes to teach someone how to use the thing – it’s so intuitive and easy, you don’t really have to think about it.’”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Alaska Airlines pilots using Apple iPads in cockpit – May 23, 2011
Mission-critical Apple iPads in cockpits may hasten end of era for paper charts – March 7, 2011
FAA authorizes use of Jeppesen app on iPad to replace paper aeronautical charts – February 16, 2011
Now that’s what I call Military Intelligence!!!!
Jobs was not glad with military applications of his devices; not a Buddhist’s thing.
Hundreds, or maybe thousands of innocent people were killed in the last decade as collateral damage.
“Well, I’ll tell you a story. I saw a video tape that we weren’t supposed to see. It was prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By watching the tape, we discovered that, at least as of a few years ago, every tactical nuclear weapon in Europe manned by U.S. personnel was targeted by an Apple II computer. Now, we didn’t sell computers to the military; they went out and bought them at a dealer’s, I guess. But it didn’t make us feel good to know that our computers were being used to target nuclear weapons in Europe. The only bright side of it was that at least they weren’t [Radio Shack] TRS-80s! Thank God for that.” ~ Steve Jobs in an interview to Playboy Magazine in 1985.
Maybe use of the iPad can actually save lives, both civilian and military. 🙂 Faster map finding, faster response time and more up to date maps.
Would you prefer that those thousands should live so that many more thousands should die (at the hands of the people we ARE after)? We are targeting people who specifically TARGET innocent civilians. If they hide behind civilians or are near innocent victims it is EXTREMELY unfortunately, but fact remains that the alternative (letting the terrorists live) is worse. Our enemies want us dead. It’s either them or us. We don’t intensionally target civilians, but war is hell. It’s just the sad reality of life on this planet.
I did not voice my point of view. Buddhist thing is not about harming innocent ones even for rightful reasons.
One of biggest humanists ever, the late Michael Jackson, once wrote a parable:
BUT THE HEART SAID NO
They saw the poor living in cardboard shacks, so they knocked the shacks down and built projects.
Huge blocks of cement and glass towered over asphalt parking lots.
Somehow it wasn’t much like home, even home in a shack.
“What do you expect?” they asked impatiently.
“You’re too poor to live like us. Until you can do better for yourselves, you should be grateful, shouldn’t you?”
The head said yes, but the heart said no.
They needed more electricity in the city, so they found a mountain stream to dam.
As the waters rose, dead rabbits and deer floated by;
baby birds too young to fly drowned in the nest while mother birds cried helplessly.
“It’s not a pretty sight,” they said, “but now a million people can run their air conditioners all summer. That’s more important than one mountain stream, isn’t it?”
The head said yes, but the heart said no.
They saw oppression and terrorism in a far-off land, so they made war against it.
Bombs reduced the country to rubble.
Its population cowered in fear, and every day more villagers were buried in rough wooden coffins.
“You have to be prepared to make sacrifices,” they said. “If some innocent bystanders get hurt, isn’t that just the price one must pay for peace?”
The head said yes, but the heart said no.
The years rolled by and they got old.
Sitting in their comfortable houses, they took stock.
“We’ve had a good life,” they said, “and we did the right thing.”
Their children looked down and asked why poverty, pollution, and war were still unsolved.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” they replied. “Human beings are weak and selfish. Despite our best efforts, these problems will never really end.”
The head said yes, but the children looked into their hearts and whispered, “No!”
©1992 Michael Joseph Jackson; Extracted from book “Dancing The Dream — Poems and Reflections”.
And how much did Micheal Jackson waste buying and building moments to himself? wasting hundred of millions of dollars on drugs, props, a personal amusement park, and bones of dead animals or man.
Some humanist! If he cared for the people he would have lived a clean and average life with the proceeds going to where he told others to do.
So, words may be from the head with compassion. But, ultimately- his heart said no to the poor and yes to his self.
Hollywoods head says yes but the heart of there wallet never leaves there grasp, just like the media corporations they create and live by.
Never be fooled by words. Actions are the soul.
And War is not NOT the answer! The annihilation of the enemy is.
Do you really believe what yellow journalism make up for “news”?
Jackson never bought any bones, and he actually spent quite moderately. He never bought any collections of jewels for himself (only bought to make a present to Elizabeth Taylor) or Van Gogh paintings. He bought art, but it was nothing super expensive. And it were not spare type of buys, art that Jackson bought costs higher after he owned it than it costed originally.
Jackson was never big spender either. There were court reports that with forensics finansists calculating his spendings, which were nothing like tabloid reports. The main financial burned was maintaining huge ranch with 50-150 workers there. Thousands children and their families visited Neverland’s amusements parks — many of visitors were terminally ill so Jackson designed medical beds for these who can not sit in the walls of his cinema theatre. Most of these people visited Neverland when Jackson was not even there. So it was done not only for himself, but for humanitarian reasons.
During twenty year long history of Neverlan Jackson hired up to 100 both former and active *policemen*, certified nurses and daycare personnel to care for guests and specifically safety of children. All of these hired categories are obliged to report to authorities whatever slightest suspicions about well being or behaviour of people, especially children, under threat of quite long terms of prison.
The reason why Jackson was short on cash in recent years is that he invested huge money in dot-com enterprises around 2000, which were gone during dot-com bubble crisis. That is how he has got his debt (but he was never close to being bankrupt, since his assets were always times bigger than liabilities).
Drugs the more so were not money-spending issue. Jackson had a form lupus/arthritis, a back trauma, couple of bad cases of breaking bones, and huge third degree burn on his head where hair and skin were burn the the the bone, to the skull. On his head he had equipment installed (covered under hat) for *years* that tried to stretch the left skin on the sides of the head to make it actually covered as normal as possible. He had few reconstuctive sculp surgeries about that. Jackson lived in hell pain for years. But, anyway, as autopsy showed, painkiller medication had nothing to do with his death, he did not need to use it in his last five years. However, medication for sleep was needed since during rehearsals for touring Jackson’s adrenaline was skyrocketing and there was no way for him to sleep until morning no matter what you do.
Jackson donated directly from his pockets and raised via his humanitarian actions about $200 million. He also supported the most of humanitarian funds, and he is Guinness book for that.
Jackson has left 20% of his $1-2 billion estate to charity funds. And he has wrote many hit songs, solely dedicated to world peace cause (including Earth Song, Heal the World, We Are the World).
Never be fooled by words of tabloids.
Wonder how long till the eureka moment may crystalise that iPad is coupled better with an iPhone than, say, a customised Android or, heaven forbid, any of Windows 8/9/X. Then again, those moments are often few and far between.
advantage military over civilian pilots – they can use the ipad below 10,000 feet.
It was discovered that the military was unable to locate Bin-laden until the first aircraft was equipped with an iPad, and googled his location with it. 😉
You can also use Siri:
“Find terrorists near here…”
Semper Fidelis!
Jackson bought for a the small price of 47 million dollars, one piece of jewel, the catalog of songs by The Beatles. Beat out YesSirRee Paulie.
One of the smartest business investments he ever made!
not so psyched that Apple products are being used for violence, but better, more accurate maps could cut down on human error and reduce civilian casualties, so that’s a good thing.
During the invasion of Grenada, the military has an Apple II network on the “battlefield”. The only real, reliable communications that they had with Washington was through this network.