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Nomex Maximus

Well Known Member
I'd like to see what RV builders/pilots think about this. Garmin and Avidyne make nice flight display systems. But where will companies like them be in say, ten years? What products do you think they will be developing? What more can be done in the way of new and improved glass cockpits for GA or for that matter, for airliners?

I am sort of asking because if I were looking for a new job as an avionics software engineer, I sort of wonder if we haven't pretty much gotten glass cockpits just about as far as they have any practical need to go. The G1000 system (nice system, I just got trained on it for CAP) is already certified and flying - so what else is there for Garmin to do other than keep manufacturing them? Same for Avidyne or any other glass cockpit manufacturers.

Your thoughts???

--NTM
 
Beware the predictions of the future...

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
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-- Bill Gates 1981

I sort of wonder if we haven't pretty much gotten glass cockpits just about as far as they have any practical need to go
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-- Nomex Maximus 2008
 
things like synthetic vision for example.... stuff that's already on the horizon, plus even more stuff you can't think of yet cause noone's dreamed it up :)
 
Dreamin'

If I'm dreamin' of a future cockpit, I'm thinking about convenience and safety, so how about...

...coupled EFIS with radar altimeter for cross-checking?

...more and better built-in redundancy and cross-checking?

...flight plan optimization for weather/fuel/winds (the cockpit version of Weathermeister that Dan's probably already working on :)?

...filing and updating/changing flight plans done in the cockpit and transmitted as data, not by voice?

...data logging of all EFIS & EMS parameters being continuously transmitted to my internet logging program, kind of a 'net based "black box"?

...similar data transmission to ATC (hopefully by my choice, not enforced by 'the man')?

...satellite and ground radar flight tracking for both ATC traffic and for emergency response? Available in all cockpits?

...ATIS / AWOS info transmitted to our planes as textual data, not voice?

...heads-up displays?

...smarter technology that presents us will all nav info available and best solutions based on that? (no longer will we decide whether to fly the GPS or ILS approach, we'll just fly an approach to the runway we're supposed to go to and our displays will use all available info to keep that approach safe. Basically we'll have fewer buttons to push and displays to correlate, every approach will just be an approach using best data available. Minimums will be dictated to us by our displays and based on current conditions, not PAPER charts and our ability to interpret them based on conditions.)

...speaking of paper, full and integrated Electronic Flight Bag w/sufficient backup that we're not dragging around many pounds worth of freshly mown forest on every flight?

...option for tower provided progressive instructions sent to our displays automatically for all ground movement?

That's a few that strike me at the moment. I'm sure some of this probably already exists and I just haven't seen it or used it. Progress always includes the idea that cutting edge stuff today will be ho-hum tomorrow.

George
 
"Everything that can be invented has been invented".

Commisioner Duell of the U.S. Patent Office
(1899)

How wrong can one man be?

Fifteen years from now I don't think we will recognize our (homebuilt) aircraft panels.
 
Nomex Maximus said:
OK, fair enough, but then what would a next generation glass cockpit offer? Inflight backrubs? Blueray movies?
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Me thinks experimental aviation (if it exists in a manner similar to what we know today) will still have lots of "stick and rudder" pilots and planes.

But when it comes to certificated aircraft and advanced experimentals? I suspect panels and avionics will continue to advance more and more toward an automated model:

Farther out than ten years but at some point we will get in the plane, tell it where we want to go, tell it to "git goin'", and sit there until it lands at our destination, with all enroute navigation, traffic coordination, weather calculations, and entertainment options controlled by little boxes behind the panel.

"The" panel display may only be a few inches in size since there won't be any need for the pil....uh.....passenger to navigate or keep the plane right-side-up. All commands will probably be voice activated as well. After all.....how much panel space is required to operate an elevator?

The "modern" panels we have now will be laughably primitive (and complex!) in a few years (compare a full-blown "steam" panel from twenty-five years ago to what we see in a new Cirrus).

Well..............you asked! :D
 
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tmbg said:
things like synthetic vision for example.... stuff that's already on the horizon, plus even more stuff you can't think of yet cause noone's dreamed it up :)
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Thats correct. Good desktop flight simulations, or real earth photos combined with terrain mesh data, such as Google Earth, put today's glass panels to shame, when it comes to depicting terrain. The future will be displays that make IMC look just like a clear day.

L.Adamson
 
George,

Pretty much all that stuff is already out there.. it's called PlaneView... standard equipment on G550... don't think they sell to the homebuild crowd... :)
 
While some of this fancy stuff will be on some planes, the vast majority of legacy aircraft will remain as they are today.

I suspect that overall GA activity will be significantly reduced from the level we see today.

One nail in the coffin will be the ADS-B Out mandate that most people are oblivious of.
 
The current generation of EFISs are nice, but they all have a lot more growing they could do. I will be at least one customer in 10 years looking for something cooler than anything that's out there now.

In-flight backrubs would be nice. Somebody work on that!
 
Didn't I read that ADS-b would allow ATC to transmit flight plan/ clearance in data rather than voice format?? Punch a button and accept the change rather than fumbling head down with a reprogram will be nice some day.

As far as EFIS, I think the thread on VV and other ways to PRESENT the data will certainly change for the better with more user friendly and intuitive displays of the data.

I look forward to ADS-b as it'll cost a third (~3k I hope or less) of the real traffic systems out there now (10k). If I take long enough to build I won't even have to replace my transponder, ADS-B will be the original at my build pace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:
 
The future is now, I think ....

Geico266 said:
10 years from now the FAA might realize we don't need paper maps in the cockpit anymore.
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Isn't this the case now ... ASSUMING (!!) you have current/up to date/legitimate blah, blah databases in your GPS???

I seem to recall that recently it became OK to not have paper charts if you had such.

If I am wrong, somebody please correct me in a hurry!!:)
 
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