The transformation from commercial use to
general aviation…Recent Applications
The key success factors in
general aviation are affordability, applicability and increases in safety for
weather reporting, traffic avoidance and situational awareness. The successful application in commercial
aviation has started to “trickled down” to general aviation – smaller, more
affordable aircraft that operate out of your typical home town airport. The same issues that caused the migration
from older, analog “steam gauge” instrumentation in commercial aircraft have
resulted in an emerging market for the General Aviation industry. Firms such as Avidyne, Bendix/King, Blue
Mountain, Garmin, Sandel, UPS Aviation Technologies (now Garmin) have developed
their own versions of glass cockpit components thus driving a new industry
segment in a mere 3-4 years.
The cost is significantly
lower that that of their commercial counterparts with components starting in
the hundreds of dollars for a moving-map GPS unit to thousands for a “Full
Panel” package. The 2004 Mooney Ovation2
DX (shown below) comes equipped with a full glass cockpit consisting of the
Garmin G-1000 integrated avionics flat-panel system including the GDL69A
Weather uplink (displays real-time weather information overlaying a moving map
display), a Mode "S" transponder (tells Air Traffic Control where you
are), and an Autopilot system for automatic roll and pitch changes.
Mooney Ovation2 DX Cockpit
Cirrus Aircraft – using the AvidyneTM glass cockpit:
Moving map with hurricane Charlie over Florida Key critical engine information
The glass cockpits offer
General Aviation pilots the ability to have faster and higher quality weather
information in the air than on the ground. This highly sophisticated, easy to
use system provides in-cockpit weather information which is an invaluable
resource for cross country pilots. Satellite datalink delivers information
critical to pilots including NEXRAD radar, full-color graphical weather patters
overlain on a moving map display.
The potential benefits of the
technology is overall general aviation safety, ease of use, and reliability.
Attributing to the increased safety factor is the moving map – critical to
providing pilots with enhanced situational awareness. More sophisticated units
combing moving map graphics with terrain/topographical illustrations to provide
the pilot with a view of ground obstructions. This feature has been linked with
decreasing a known accident issue of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
where the pilots’ activities are focused inside the cockpit (flying at night or
in clouds which is typical instrument conditions) and inadvertently fly into
the terrain. Graphic displays provide a “moving map” illustrating the path of
flight on the display in real-time motion. This feature combined with real-time
weather and a terrain picture greatly enhances general aviation safety.
As more of the high-tech panel
technology emerges in the cockpits of general aviation aircraft, the costs will
continue to decrease as less costly units are developed by the major players
and the technology improves over time. Each year another aircraft manufacturer
announces the glass cockpit option for their airplanes to avoid being left
behind the technology curve. General aviation pilots are demanding the
“transition to glass” and manufacturers are quickly approaching certification
approvals to accommodate the needs of the marketplace.
Within the next ten years,
many leading general aviation experts predict that glass cockpits will become
as ubiquitous as the PC and cell phone.
Many vendors are integrating air-type cell phones, CD players, real-time
weather uplink and traffic avoidance components all in one – matching and in
some cases surpassing commercial jet platforms used by the major airlines and
business jet operators.
Definition: What is a “glass”
cockpit?
A modern commercial example – The
Boeing 747 – “Then and Now”
History and Background –
Technology Profile
How does it work? – A brief
explanation of the glass cockpit components
The Transformation from commercial use to General Aviation – Recent Applications