Safer Avionics, Safer Flights
Fabrizio Poli
Entrepreneur, Aviation Advisor, Airline Transport Pilot, Pilot Coaching-Mentoring, Aircraft Buyer & Leasing, Futurist, Speaker & Author.
Glass cockpits originated in military aircraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s; an early example is the Mark II avionics of the F-111D (first ordered in 1967, delivered from 1970–73), which featured a multi-function display.
Before the 1970s, aircraft were not considered sufficiently demanding to require advanced equipment like electronic flight displays. Also, computer technology was not as advanced where sufficiently light and powerful circuits were available. The increasing complexity of transport aircraft, the advent of digital systems and the growing air traffic congestion around airports began to change that.
The average transport aircraft in the mid-1970s had more than one hundred cockpit instruments and controls, and the primary flight instruments were already crowded with indicators, crossbars, and symbols, and the growing number of cockpit elements were competing for cockpit space and pilot attention.[2] As a result, NASA conducted research on displays that could process the raw aircraft system and flight data into an integrated, easily understood picture of the flight situation, culminating in a series of flights demonstrating a full glass cockpit system.
When choosing to buy an aircraft I find having a modern glass-cockpit is a great safety feature to have. However, AOPA’s Air Safety Institute recently released The Accident Record of Technologically Advanced Airplanes — a report that concludes that the introduction of TAAs (technologically advance aircraft; the definition is extremely broad) has not decreased accident rates, as some expected to happen. In fact, newer glass cockpit airplanes had “demonstrably higher rates of accidents during takeoffs, landings and go-arounds,” according to the study. The study found that the accident rate between analog and glass panels were minimal.” The study’s authors reached no conclusion as to why landing or takeoff accidents would be greater with TAAs.
I personally find that if the pilots have received good training the glass cockpit can increase situational awareness and this helps improve safety. Very often aircraft choice comes before avionics, however you can fit an older aircraft with a modern glass cockpit. This is always a way of adding more value to your aircraft, together with WiFi.
This new cutting edge technology is always first developed for Military aircraft, then it moves into the business jets and finally into airliners. I always say that if your private jet pilots are trained well and you have a jet with modern glass cockpit, you are in safe hands.
Fabrizio Poli (on the left ) is an Aviation Analyst & Managing Partner of Boutique Aviation Company Tyrus Wings. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube.Fabrizio can be reached on:
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +44 7722 350 017
Founder at Proprotor
9 年As the situation gets more critical, simplify and succeed.
Founder/Principal Consultant l Helping healthcare leaders establish strong data governance without unnecessary complexity
9 年Anyone willing to build an experimental aircraft with modular systems that would allow us to design and test alternatives?
Founder/Principal Consultant l Helping healthcare leaders establish strong data governance without unnecessary complexity
9 年Part of the problem that I have seen that leads to higher complication is two-fold. First, duplication of information, to allow the pilot to confirm or second guess the flight computer. Second, duplication of controls, in case of control system failure. There is no easy answer here. As long as we assume/require/expect this level of redundancy, which I feel is important from an emergency perspective, pilots will be overwhelmed with information. Hiding the backup displays and controls is not the answer due to delays in accessing them in an emergency. Neither is removing the redundancy. It is possible that completely revamping the displays and controls around flight processes instead of functions could work, but will require large scale effort from a first class team to accomplish - and obtain FAA approval.
Test Pilot at Forsvarsmateriell - Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency
9 年There always seems to be an assumption that more technology and more sensors will reduce accidents. The problem is that the engineers who design the interfaces and equipment tend to do so without talking to the pilots. What's important at 20000 ft is not so important at 200 ft but we seem to have developed electronic cockpits these days that saturate the pilots with information irrespective of the altitude. Perhaps we need displays that get simpler as you get close to the ground. That was the delight of analogue, what you needed was in front of you and the rest could wait.