Continental Plans To Deploy Units Throughout B757, B767
Aircraft
Jeppesen announced this week
Continental Airlines recently completed the world's first flight
using Jeppesen Airport Moving Map on a Class 2 Electronic Flight
Bag (EFB). Also on board were Jeppesen digital charts.
Continental plans an aggressive retrofit deployment of navAero
Class 2 EFB systems starting with 12 airplanes the first month,
leading to deployment on all Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft. Combined
with Class 3 EFBs already deployed on Boeing 777 aircraft,
Continental will have EFBs with Jeppesen Airport Moving Map and
Jeppesen digital charts on most of its fleet.
"Jeppesen has provided navigation services for us for many years
and we are pleased to partner with them on the implementation of
this technology," said Fred Abbott, vice president of flight
operations for Continental Airlines.
Jeppesen was granted FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO)
authorization for its Airport Moving Map application for Class 2
EFB devices in March 2008, and is the first and only company to
have received such approval. Jeppesen Airport Moving Map uses a
high resolution database to dynamically render maps of the airport,
and through the use of GPS technology, show pilots their position
("own-ship") on the airport surface. The result is much improved
positional awareness among flight crews, which is a critical safety
factor for reducing runway incursions during ground operations,
especially at busy commercial airports with complex runway and
taxiway layouts.
"This represents an important milestone as Jeppesen partners
with Continental to increase efficiency on the flight deck and
safety on the ground," said Thomas Wede, Jeppesen senior vice
president and general manager, Aviation. "By retrofitting their
existing aircraft with Class 2 EFB hardware solutions and Jeppesen
Airport Moving Map, Continental takes a major step forward in
transitioning to a paperless flight deck and reducing the risk of
runway incursions."
The TSO-authorized Airport Moving Map software from Jeppesen is
also selected for use by numerous airlines in the U.S. as part of
the FAA Capstone 3 program. In this program, the FAA is
providing approximately $600,000 to each airline to install
equipment that will use Airport Moving Map technology. This program
is part of the FAA's effort to improve runway
safety.
Jeppesen Airport Moving Map has been a featured application on
Boeing's highly successful Class 3 EFB since its introduction five
years ago. To date more than 200 airplanes with Airport
Moving Map capability have been delivered and are in operational
service using Boeing Class 3 EFBs. With the TSO approval for
Class 2 EFBs, Jeppesen is able to extend the reach of this
important safety enabler as an attractive retrofit option for the
large existing aviation fleet.