Over the last couple of years, one of the industries which has really been transformed by the iPad is the aviation industry, where pilots have all of a sudden been able to trade-in their bulky flight bags stuffed with fifty pounds worth of flight manuals and materials for light, thin iPads.
We’ve written a lot of stories about pilots getting iPads (here’s another one!), but we’ve never actually gotten a good look at the iPad set-up pilots are using instead. Consider that remedied.
Using an iPad on a plane during takeoff is one of the biggest sins in the galaxy. Just ask Alec Baldwin. There hasn’t been much proof that it’s bad, but no one wants to test fate. The Federal Avaiation Administration is finally starting to relax on their electronics rules though.
American Airlines just became the first commercial carrier to get FAA approval to kit their pilots’ flight bags with iPads, and they get to use them in “all phases of flight.” I bet the pilots are stoked that they get play Angry Birds In Space during takeoff.
Photo by Siemens PLM Software - http://flic.kr/p/9wsE5q
From the cockpit to the squad car and everywhere in between, 2011 was the year the iPad became a part of business. Throughout the year, we’ve introduced a number of jobs that have adopted the iPad and we return to see how Apple’s tablet has reshaped industries big and small. In fact, the jet you take for your holiday travel may be co-piloted by the iPad 2.
American Airlines’ pilots will soon be able to exchange 35 pounds of charts and manuals for a 1.5 iPad. The airline becomes the world’s first to use the Apple tablet in the cockpit and throughout the flight, saving an estimated $1.2 million in fuel annually.
Like many of us, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has a love for Apple’s iPhone. He frequently uses the device to send messages to his Twitter followers, and his addiction, the popular word game Words With Friends, recently got him thrown off an American Airlines flight to New York.
When American Airlines announced that they were planning on phasing out the paper in-flight charts in the cockpit in favor of the iPad, some of us smelled a PR maneuver. How could a couple of breakable $500 tablets in each plane be cheaper or easier than just printing out some maps?
As it turns out, though, paper’s heavy… and merely by switching to the iPad in every plane, American Airlines could save up to $1.2 million every year in fuel costs alone.
![How The iPad Transformed Millions Of Jobs In 2011 [Year In Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/teamipad.jpg "teamipad")
