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iPads to Replace Paper Reference Manuals in All AA Cockpits
The FAA has approved American Airlines to be the first commercial airline to have its pilots use iPads in "all phases of flight," rather than the 35lb paper reference manuals they're used to. Based on current fuel prices, The Next Web estimates that this will save the airline some $1.2M annually, across all of its aircraft. This month, AA's 777 fleet will be the first to get the technological upgrade; by the end of this year, all fleet types are expected to have approval for… (gizmodo.com) 更多...
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Like all things, these save money over time. I've been using the iPad with Foreflight and love it! I recommended it to the sales rep from our fueling company and he fell in love with it as well. Turns out, his company decided it was a good idea to equip the entire sales force with them. I believe that was 7 or 8 sales reps, each with their own aircraft. They were spending approximately $900 per year updating various charts and approach plates. The cost of the iPads were around $800 + the yearly subscription to Foreflight was $75. Once they got past the first year they were saving almost $7,000 per year! Not to mention the ease with which you don't have to carry around tons of paperwork now. I think this is a good progressive move.
But they still have to turn them off between take off and 10,000 feet.
Negative, sir: "all phases of flight"
Does the 35lb of manuals really make enough difference in fuel costs to add up to $1.2M ? (I'm just guesstimating here, but ...) if AA did 300,000 flights a year, that equates to $4 per flight to carry the paper manuals. Can someone verify this?
Yes ! Very roughly, it requires 3% (fuel weight) per hour to carry extra weight.
600+ Aircraft flying 3500+ hours per year @ 1 lb (3% of 35 lbs) = in excess of 2.1 million lbs of fuel. [Current cost of jet fuel about $0.50 per lb]
Cost of 1200+ iPads ???
600+ Aircraft flying 3500+ hours per year @ 1 lb (3% of 35 lbs) = in excess of 2.1 million lbs of fuel. [Current cost of jet fuel about $0.50 per lb]
Cost of 1200+ iPads ???
It’s more than just fuel. It’s the paper, labor, and distribution costs that add up. It's my guess the crews own the Ipads. Just like they own their paper manuals, so they're responsible for the revisions. The crews will go to the company's internal website to download the revisions.
Not to mention the Printer maintenance, and toner costs...
the cost of updating/maintaining the paper manuals wouldn't be much different to the hardware costs of equiping the crews.
