American Airlines has announced the deployment of over 8,000 iPads to the cockpits of its fleet as part of a new electronic flight bag for pilots. The roll out has lead to American discontinuing paper revisions to its terminal charts, saving money, paper, and mess in the future.
To put a number on how much effect the switch will have, the electronic flight bag is replacing more than 35 pounds of paper-based reference materials that pilots carry in their carry-on kitbag. By removing that extra weight from their flights American will save a minimum of 400,000 gallons of fuel and $12 million dollars annually, based on current fuel prices.
In addition pilots will save more time thanks to the elimination of the hours it
