One day soon, pilots could view the weather from a different perspective thanks to a social networking system being developed by Thales.
The idea - working name E-Meteo - is to add a simple function to the Thales navAero avionics computer to allow pilots to touch icons on a tablet computer to mark points at which the aircraft enters atmospheric events such as clear air turbulence or thunderstorm activity.
The navAero computer knows the aircraft's location at the in and out points and, by taking data from other avionics system users in the region, can build a real-time map of meteoric conditions.
Any pilot using a linked avionics computer will be able to share the data so all members of an avionics community would benefit, be they piloting a jumbo jet or a small private aircraft.
Source: Flight International
