Airbus is working with suppliers on a flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD) cockpit retrofit for A300-600s and A310-300s. At present both types' cockpits have a mixture of cathode ray tube (CRT) displays and electro-mechanical instruments.
There is "interest from customers", says the manufacturer. The advantage would be more modern flight instrument and display layouts giving improved visual clarity, a reduction in maintenance cost, electrical power use and weight, and a gain in reliability. Airbus says it is talking to avionics suppliers, but is yet to make a vendor selection.
A decision to go ahead would be made next year, says the company. Customer airlines would be offered a retrofit package, and they would have a choice of fitting the new avionics themselves, selecting a third party engineering company to do it, or choosing Airbus itself to carry out the conversion.
Airbus is already supplying LCD screens in new-build fly-by-wire A320 and A330/A340-family aircraft, in place of CRT pilot displays.
The A300-600 is the only non-fly-by-wire Airbus model in production and Airbus holds outstanding orders for 58 freighters from UPS Airlines and six from Air Hong Kong. The manufacturer continues to offer the A310-300, but has not built one for several years.
Source: Flight International
