ANDREW DOYLE / SINGAPORE
Australian flag carrier plans to equip A330s with "electronic flight-bag" as regulator mulls certification moves
Qantas Airways plans to become one of the first airlines to fly a "paperless" cockpit avionics suite in revenue service when deliveries of its Airbus A330s begin later this year.
Qantas has asked Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to develop certification standards for the system, which provides pilots with an "electronic flight-bag", comprising digitally stored maps, approach plates, performance flight manuals and charts.
Under the plans, an additional pair of screens will be installed - one mounted on each side of the cockpit - to enable the pilots to monitor the position of the aircraft superimposed on a "moving map" showing topographic, aeronautical and procedural data. The aim is to eliminate the need for crew to carry folders of charts and books of aeronautical information and flight documentation, reducing operations and flight planning costs.
"We are working on the paperless cockpit with suppliers and regulators," says Qantas, which will begin receiving the first of seven A330-200s and six -300s in November. However, the project is "still in the early stages", it adds.
CASA says it is looking at what certification rules, if any, should apply. "We are looking at whether there should be standards for the data that goes into the flight bag, and for the actual equipment itself, and how the information is displayed in particular," says CASA.
Qantas has not revealed the hardware and software vendors for its A330 installation. Possible suppliers include Boeing-owned Jeppesen and Spirent Systems, both of which have developed electronic flight-bag products.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is also looking at moving-map display technology, ostensibly to help pilots navigate around airports while taxiing, following the SQ006 accident at Taipei in which the crew fatally started a take-off from the wrong runway. "We have not made a formal request to manufacturers, but we are in talks over prototypes as part of a broader electronic flight bag system," says SIA.
Source: Flight International
