That brand-new, touch-screen GPS navigator in your panel? It’s obsolete. Oh, it’s got the latest WAAS GPS receiver and more processing power than its forebears, and it’ll tackle any navigation task from an ILS to a holding pattern to a complicated departure procedure, But its display likely is a generation or two removed from what anyone can buy today in the form of a smartphone or tablet computer.
The lead times involved in designing and certifying the box in your panel mean a consumer-grade tablet’s display is hands-down better and always will be. That’s the electronics business. And since a new tablet likely won’t replace certified glass in the near future, the trick is connecting the panel to the better display on the tablet and using it to enhance situational awareness. From it’s introduction, the iPad, its offspring and their competition, along with some innovative software developers, have revolutionized how we obtain, depict and use situational awareness data in the cockpit.
