United Airlines Invests in 11,000 iPads

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[citation][nom]STravis[/nom]You must not be a really good engineer...otherwise you'ld already know that computers are already driven by computers. Sure there's redundancy but nobody suggested that there would be only 1 iPad or Laptop so there's redundancy there's as well.[/citation]

Nevermind the fact that they are not using the IPads to control the flight. It is a information delivery device.
 
This has been tested by smaller companies for over a year... carrying BOTH ipad and paper flight bag materials. Freaking apple haters can go away. did someone REALLY ask about a cigarette charger?

326,000 gallons of fuel a year??? Thats just under a million dollars a year @ $3 a gallon (http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/economics/fuel_monitor/Pages/index.aspx). and alidan's estimate of about $600 per replaced bag is probably low but reasonable. No idea how often they replace the contents of the bags though. but 16 million copies a year? thats roughly $800,000 a year not counting binding, storage, shipping to various airlines and so on. That totals a minimum of 9 million in savings over 5 years for fuel and paper.

A mid range ipad2, no 3g is $600 so they spend 6.6 million retail (so apple gives them a break to 5-6 million). They pay for themselves in 3 years or less. No way to know an Ipads lifespan for now, but I would expect 5 years to be reasonable for the average Ipad (not counting in oops damage). But none of that includes Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck subscription cost... can't be cheap.

so jet fuel carbon - 3200 metric tons a year saved, so 16,000 metric tons over 5 years. plus 5 years of paper - about 80 million sheets, 9500 trees, 1.6 million gallons of water. That is about 186 metric tons of paper a year. estimate .2m/t of carbon per ton (saw as high as .32 and low as .1) and that will total another 186 m/t of carbon saved over 5 years.

http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2011/03/apple-reduced-ipad-2-carbon-footprint.html

This site estimates Ipad2's carbon footprint for consumer use is 105kg over its lifespan. even at 150kg (for heavier business use, case, backup cables...), that means 11,000 ipads would have a carbon footprint of no more than 1625 metric tons over 5 years.

That is roughly a 14,500 m/t of carbon savings over 5 years. a net savings of 4-5 million dollars over 5 years not counting the subscription cost for the navigation App. And I would bet the app is faster and more up to date from what I have read. so efficiency and what not improvements may also occur. not to mention, I bet the flight crew prefers under 2 pounds for EFB than the 38 pound paper FB.
 
[citation][nom]morenu[/nom]This has been tested by smaller companies for over a year... carrying BOTH ipad and paper flight bag materials. Freaking apple haters can go away. did someone REALLY ask about a cigarette charger? 326,000 gallons of fuel a year??? Thats just under a million dollars a year @ $3 a gallon citation]

I thumbed you up for the details.

$3/gallon - not jet fuel. You are referring to?

Cigarette charger - yes, retards will ask retarded questions.
 
[citation][nom]morenu[/nom]I have no idea jet fuel cost... the site I googled too listed it at about 298 cts/gal. i assume thats cents per gallon. site:http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/econo [...] index.aspx[/citation]

It depends (apparently) on where you get it. You can go to http://www.airnav.com/fuel/local.html to get the fuel prices at your local airport. Much like fuel at the Marina it's a lot more than at the pump.
 
In any case-- I imagine major airlines who go through unimaginable amounts of fuel get the best possible pricing. The airports could try and jam them a bit, but I'd bet the airport has more to lose in an airline killing service there than they have to gain by overcharging them on fuel.

I find it hard to believe that Continental/United even possibly pays the same per gallon to fuel their planes as people filling up their small personal aircraft.
 
[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom]Just because you are a pilot, doesn't mean you are tech savvy... Having the battery NOT user replaceable prevents idiot pilots from fiddling with it. And in a corporate environment, the less connectivity the better: You don't want some idiot pilot plugging in his USB flash-drive to watch some movies while on autopilot, only to find out it has a virus that causes that pad to freeze...As far as being a pressurized environment: I'd be more worried how they would react in an UNPRESSURIZED environment. Earth is pressurized at sea level... It is rapid decompression which might cause the iPad screens to pop out of their aluminum frame...[/citation]

at that point they arent going to be looking at an i pad, because they have far bigger problems.
 
My issue is with the cost of these overpriced toys from Apple when they could have bought a netbook that did the same thing for much less and had more functionality to boot.

So United , is that "Apple Tax" going to show up on the cost of my fare now?
 
You guys are all idiots. Commercial and corporate jet pilots have been flying around with Ipads and aviation apps for a while now. Even non-commercial pilots are doing it. This is nothing new, what is new is an airline going ahead and buying the device for the pilots instead of the pilots doing it out of their own pocket. It can be a huge workload saver on airplanes without the latest modern equipment, and in a modern airplanes its a great backup and also is useful for checklists and looking up all kinds of other data.



 
"when they could have bought a netbook that did the same thing for much less and had more functionality to boot."

Well, since cockpits are spacious with lots of desk space, a netbook would be really convenient...
 
[citation][nom]legacy7955[/nom]My issue is with the cost of these overpriced toys from Apple when they could have bought a netbook that did the same thing for much less and had more functionality to boot.So United , is that "Apple Tax" going to show up on the cost of my fare now?[/citation]

I own or have owned desktops, netbooks, laptops and ipads... I build gaming PCs for friends... And I own an Ipad. why? because it is the easiest tool i have found for looking up info that still has enough programers making useful apps right NOW. I do not create much on it (besides email and the like), so it is not a laptop replacement IMO.

But.. a book reader? seriously? for manuals, fine... static info? fine... real time weather and flight data? PLEASE... black and white weather data? really? Do you really think there is a high quality book reader app like the one they have for the ipad? And I hate netbooks. Too small to work on (create stuff) and too clunky to consume information quickly. Plus they have just about every negative that a laptop has with just about none of their positives. The ONLY place I have been happy with netbooks is in a k-6 school, where the size matches the person.

People, at least be impartial. Is the ipad some new magical device? no, its a limited, pc-esk, tablet device. BUT it Fing works. its easy to use (my daughter has been able to use mine since she was 20 months, by herself). As a company, I do not want my employees able to add and mess with company equipment really easy. It is a tool. it needs to work. the Ipad does this in a nice, neat package. get over it. and the "apple tax" on an 11,000 unit order to a major company??? i bet it was VERY minimal.

I swear some people act like they own these competing companies... why do you care if someone buys something different then you? get a life and get over it already, its old.

I for one am am happy to see about 3000 metric tons of carbon less every year because of this move. we all should be.
 
[citation][nom]sundaymarch1056[/nom]I don't think that's such a good idea replacing reliable paper with an iPad. What if the iPad's data gets corrupted?[/citation]

And other posts about batteries, screens popping out when there is decompression, damage from dropping.

- Read the ARTICLE. FB (Flight Bags) carry about 40lbs of manuals, guides, weather, flight plans, check lists, etc. Many of those are re-used for the same plane (manuals). And I'm pretty much sure each plane includes its own paper manual. Its not just one book. Its many books, charts, notes, etc.

- There is a good chance that the iPads will have an otterskin to make it more durable. A tablet requires less space, far less weight and far more battery than any 5lb notebook.

- the iPad has only 1 port for transferring data. So getting viruses and other things would require work. Its a solid construction, the screen popping out will be difficult... its more solid than most notebooks.

- the FB is just as useless an an iPad during a crisis. Usually when there is a multiple failure that results into a crash, the pilots may have less than 10 minutes to resolve the emergencies, but sometimes seconds. No book or iPad will save them... only their training, luck and what failed will give them a fighting chance. examples:
(A) flying into a mountain because of visual failure
(B) vertical stabilizer (rudder) falls off, nothing will save the plane - it WILL instantly be uncontrollable and crash.
(C) bird ingestion on all engines.
(D) major hydraulic leak (which means control surfaces fail)
(E) explosion caused by fuel or cargo... like the TWA 800 (air fuel mixture explosion or a missile explosion - causing the front 1/4 of the plane to fall off) or ValuJet Flight 592 in which oxygen generators in the cargo got damaged and started a fire. Or actual missile strike.

- These documents will be easier to locate with the SEARCH function, chapter listing and book mark features on the iPad and its apps.

- Weather and flight info can be UPDATED while in flight.

- Airliners have AC power... not difficult to power up an iPad, considering they'll run for about 8~10 hours of constant usage.

- Doesn't require a night-light to read the info.
 
I zoomed in on the photo from the article. The iPad has a protective casing around it already.

I'm betting they are using a 3G version with 64GB to easily hold all the data and more.

I'd like to add... An advantage of having the books is when: you have an emergency landing on a remote island and need the manuals to repair the radios to call for help, fix the engines or other equipment, etc... like on the TV Series LOST or fictional books.

er... no. When an Airliner crashes... its not going anywhere soon. And there are no remote islands anymore. GPS and other tracking systems will KNOW where an airliner crashes. Only the ocean and mountains (with snow) will make the finding the aircraft difficult nowadays and we found the AIR-France in several miles deep under water and still recovered working black boxes. Which showed the plane's emergency from start to crash was less than 10 minutes - their actions would not have been different from any kind of FB or eFB.

Yes, there was a malfunction on the aircraft... but they didn't do the right actions to keep the plane from losing attitude, until it was too late. From the time the error started until crashing into the ocean was 4m 28s. No time to read a manual to re-member the proper things to do and the Captain not taking it as seriously as he should.
 
Ah dangit. When I read the headline I thought, my prayers had been answered. Thought, they finally had personal entertainment on UA. Rather than retrofitting the plane with Virgin America style hight tech seats, why not rip out the old monochrome CRT's hanging in the center Aisle and give (or rent...) a pad to each passenger, hooked up to the on-plane network. Problem solved. And for friggin cheap!

And before the Apple bashing begins: I don't care which tablet it is.
 
If UA wants to use some software Apple disapproves of can they escape the walled garden?

Also, doesn't apple have the ability to force upgrades etc on their stuff? Or are these special iPads?
 
I can see why iPads have been picked due to strict FAA regulations. Apple have complete control on their hardware and software where as the Android tablet it's fragmented both software and hardware.

So it's a easy win for Apple in this area. I still prefer the Android tablet as I like to customize it the way I want it to be.
 
[citation][nom]doorspawn[/nom]If UA wants to use some software Apple disapproves of can they escape the walled garden?[/citation]

they get a developer to write it in house and send it through the obnoxious but reasonably thorough app process... granted there are a few things a jailbroke based app can do that apple doesnt allow, but I have also found that the times I have run my ipad JB with 8 or more JB apps, it locks up/ resets every day or two. I literally have a lock up less than once a month with no JB. (its not the JB itself, its the apps that access areas not meant to be accessed). and technically JB apps can easilly carry trojans/viruses (apple has allowed through a few themselves as well)

from a business standpoint, this is awesome. it is the control I would want. I would make JB a company ipad a serious reprimand.

[citation][nom]doorspawn[/nom]Also, doesn't apple have the ability to force upgrades etc on their stuff? Or are these special iPads?[/citation]

so you bitch about a device you know little about. lovely. NO, apple can not force an upgrade unless you are doing a full factory reset. you have the choice in itunes to upgrade or not. and I believe you can get around the forced upgrade on a reset by having your firmware downloaded and pointing itunes to it rather than checking the internet (so say you were upgrading 11000 ipads, you just download it once).

No the ver 5 iOS I do not know, I hear they are trying to make updates download in parts instead of a full OS download and reinstall.

[citation][nom]legacy7955[/nom]Netbook. Cheaper and small enough to be practical in the cockpit. It doesn't put the outrageous "Apple Tax" on plane fares like the iPud does.[/citation]

netbooks need a table or a lap to work on. ipads do not. see my rant above about why netbooks are terrible. or...-> takes all the bad things of a laptop, combines it with under powered machine, dinky screen, OS not well designed for small screen, mouse or tiny touchpad, oh but they have good battery life (oops about the same as an ipad) and they are small (again, same as an ipad). netbooks excel at NOTHING and have tons of limitations. good for kids only. my wifes netbook has not been touched in over a year (since she bought her Ipad with 3g).
 
[citation][nom]ulysses35[/nom]Hmm weight save = 38lbs..... average american passenger is obese so wherew is the saving ? What about if they ipad runs out of charge ???[/citation]
FYI dude, the world is getting fat, give any species access to unlimited food and no real need to lose that weight and they will gorge and the population will swell. Yea maybe the US was first to be seen as getting overweight, but the rest of the world is catching up rather well.
 
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