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You are describing why something that hasn't changed for decades won't change for decades. Because nothing ever changes. All of that stops being true when chang
by jillesvangurp 1y ago
You are describing why something that hasn't changed for decades won't change for decades. Because nothing ever changes. All of that stops being true when change is forced. My closing argument provides that change vector: a couple of orders of magnitude increase in flight movements and autonomous flight.
From a technical and practical point of view this stuff isn't actually hard: you start with the big airlines. Maintaining and refurbishing airplanes is something they spend lots of money on. Hundreds of thousands per plane per year. So, there's plenty of budget and a little bit of new equipment won't really move the needle.
Just look at how quickly ipads got adopted by pilots. Many pilots won't fly without one now. Reason: they are good and they provide redundancy when the multi million thing in front of them has an electrical failure. It provides GPS, can talk to ADSB via bluetooth. You can have an artificial horizon on it, etc. Pilots won't use them as a primary instrument (that would be illegal) but they are well capable as an emergency replacement with the right apps. This industry can move fast when it needs to. Ipads are cheap. They provide convenience and safety. So pretty much any pilot will want one in their plane.
The issue isn't technical but bureaucratic. If ipads had to have gone through some FAA controlled design committee, they would never have gotten this popular. But they didn't. The history of this stuff is that airlines got organized first before the FAA took over. They'll have to force these changes.
- mschuster91 1y ago> From a technical and practical point of view this stuff isn't actually hard: you start with the big airlines. You still need to get any new integration certified, and not just on the plane side, but also on the ground. And it's ... problematic because you would then have two wildly different systems in parallel, and pilots would need to switch between radio and digital all the time. Too much potential for chaos.