Maersk Air – Charter Airline

If possible, take a look in the cockpit the next time you step on a plane, especially if you charter a jet. If the pilot’s there, you may see an iPad similar to your own strapped to his or her upper leg. But this isn’t some bizarre  entertainment ploy – some pilots on private charter flights will actually start using an application on Apple’s tablet computer for the navigational charts they are required to have to chart their course while in the air.

This may seem shocking or underwhelming, depending on your background. For those of you with smart phones or iPads who already use your systems to map out directions while diving in the car, this will seem hardly worth mention. But for others still new to the idea of something called an app store, this will seem radical indeed.

In fact, despite the amazing advances in computing technology over the past two decades, most pilots are still stuck in the 20th century, or, at best, in the year 2000. Required to bring navigational charts on their flights, pilots usually bring either paper maps or an 18-pound electronic flight bag, which are portable computers designed for pilots and their aviation needs.

Last month the FAA approved a charter airline’s application so its pilots could use an iPad to provide them with their required navigational charts. An application available for download to the iPad for free from iTunes’ app store delivers the charts to the pilot, taking away the need for paper or bulky electronic equipment. With iPads weighing 1.5 pounds, and being strapped to the pilot’s leg during flight, all of a sudden things in the cockpit just got a lot roomier.

While the FAA has only approved the application of one company to use iPads for navigational charts for its private charter planes, two other major commercial airlines are testing the use of iPads for their pilots too. And the developer of the application used on the iPad is developing more applications for use on other tablet computers as well. With this key initial approval, tablet computers could become the standard of the charter flight, and even of the larger commercial airline, industry, assisting not only with charts, but in training and more.