subject: Glass cockpit [print this page] More infohttp://avionics0.blogspot.com/2010/09/glass-cockpit.html
Aglass cockpit is anaircraftcockpitthat featureselectronicinstrumentdisplays. Where a traditional cockpit relies on numerous mechanical gauges to display information, a glass cockpit uses several displays driven byflightmanagement systems, that can be adjusted to display flight information as needed. This simplifies aircraft operation and navigation and allowspilotsto focus only on the most pertinent information.
Early glass cockpits, found in theMcDonnell Douglas MD-80/90, Boeing737 Classic,757and767-200/-300, and in the AirbusA300-600andA310, usedElectronicFlight Instrument Systems(EFIS) to display attitude and navigational information only, with traditional mechanical gauges retained for airspeed, altitude and vertical speed. Later glass cockpits, found in the Boeing737NG,747-400,767-400,777,A320and later Airbuses,Ilyushin Il-96andTupolev Tu-204have completely replaced the mechanical gauges and warning lights inpreviousgenerations of aircraft. 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. As a result,NASAconductedresearchon 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 offlightsdemonstrating a full glass cockpit system. The glass cockpit has become standard equipment inairliners,business jets, andmilitary aircraft, and was even fitted into NASA'sSpace ShuttleorbitersAtlantis,Columbia,Discovery, andEndeavour, and the current RussianSoyuzTMA model spacecraft that was launched in 2002. By the end of the century glass cockpits began appearing ingeneral aviationaircraft as well. By2005, even basic trainers like thePiper CherokeeandCessna 172were shipping with glass cockpits as options (which nearly all customers chose), and many modern aircraft such as theDiamond Aircrafttwin-engine travel and training aircraft DA42, andCirrus DesignSR20 and SR22 are available with glass cockpit only. As aircraft operation becomes more dependent on glass cockpit systems, flight crews must be trained to deal with possible failures.In one glass-cockpit aircraft, theAirbus A320, fifty incidents of glass-cockpit blackout have occurred.On 25 January 2008UnitedAirlinesFlight 731 experienced a serious glass-cockpit blackout, losing half of theECAMdisplays as well as all radios, transponders,TCAS, and attitude indicators.Partially due to goodweatherand daylight conditions, the pilots were able to land successfully at Newark Airport without radio contact. Airbus has offered an optional fix, which the USNTSBhas suggested to the USFAAas mandatory, but the FAA has yet to make it a requirement.A preliminary NTSB factsheet is available
