Remote Work in the Front Seat of the Flight Deck is Finally Within Reach

True Blue Power is helping operators catch up to trends in consumer electronics with a set of new single and dual-port USB chargers.

The big news is the inclusion of power delivery options all the way up to 100 watts, allowing a whole plethora of power-hungry devices that had never been able to stay alive for too long on their own batteries. In the consumer market, 100 watts is enough for most 13 to 15-inch laptops and large tablets, powering most mission profiles aside from gaming. (And who’s really breaking out their 17-inch, 200-watt gaming rig in the air anyways?) It’s great news for the high-powered EFB users in the bunch, particularly when they’re using a big screen, high brightness settings, or graphics-intensive 3D mapping, giving them enough juice to keep their tablet topped off for after-flight use. The lot varies between single and dual ports, USB-C and USB-A, depending on customer desires. Something like the TA360-CLD offers 100 watts of USB-C power, along with data passthrough and USB-PD tech. The inclusion of Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 even helps baby your batteries, adjusting charging amounts on the fly to ensure it’s not pushing them too hard, or too fast.

On the lower end of the power range, True Blue offers chargers from 15, 36, 45, and 60 watts too, further fleshing out their offerings with ports suited to all kinds of mobile devices. Aircraft can be so equipped whether their electrical systems run on 14 or 28 volts, covering most any plane on the ramp. True Blue Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Van Winter, said customers had long been asking for more power output on such aircraft. “With the introduction of 45-watt charging ports”, he said, “we now offer USB chargers for any aircraft with a 14-volt or 28-volt electrical bus. The available range of power is unmatched and spans 15 to 100 watts per port.”

While it may seem like True Blue has already covered USB charging six ways from Sunday, this is a new dynamic for pilots wanting to charge up their power-hungry tech - while introducing a wide spectrum of devices. Aging EFBs always seem to be on the verge of dying, their batteries battered by years of warm summer, max-performance operation, so ports to interface directly and get them recharged in a jiffy are much appreciated. The tech world has already embraced Type-C ports wholeheartedly too, so the future offers all kinds of widgets to pilots, from fridges and fans to cameras and computers. And with summer around the corner, that's pretty exciting.

FMI: www.truebluepowerusa.com