laptops in the cockpit
Question:
Just wanted to point out an article in this month’s issue of FLIGHT magazine (Feb 97) titled "Flying Burt Rutan’s Boomerang" by Peter Lert. A major cockpit instrumentation component in this exotic aircraft is a Macintosh PowerBook laptop computer. The Mac handles all flight and
It also had a 4 page article with pictures in Popular Mechanincs and it was on the cover back in early November.
Response:
When you contemplate using any "non-aviation" display in the cockpit (i.e. laptop) the old addage of FLY _BEFORE_ YOU BUY cannot be overstated … Lack of display brightness and contrast are the two most obvious limitations of terrestrial computers in the bright sundrenched cockpit … What looks like it will work in the living room … might be nearly worthless in flight … Good luck !! JP
Response:
Just wanted to point out an article in this month’s issue of FLIGHT magazine (Feb 97) titled "Flying Burt Rutan’s Boomerang" by Peter Lert. A major cockpit instrumentation component in this exotic aircraft is a Macintosh PowerBook laptop computer. The Mac handles all flight and engine parameters, displays nav charts, and occupies about half the panel. There are a handful of conventional guages as well, but apparantly the computer is the primary instrument. The aircraft is assymetrical in design, and very hard to describe for an about-to-be-student-pilot like me. It’s best described as a five-seat twin-boom (sort of) aircraft. The left boom mounts one of the engines. The right boom is much larger and contains the cabin and the other engine. Rutan believes in flying with the stick in the right hand and the throttle in the left, so the pilot’s seat is on the right side of the cockpit. To me, this assymetrical aircraft is fascinatingly beautiful. I wish I could better describe it. The article includes drawings of the design progression based on a Baron 58P. Some numbers on the plane: 36.7 ft span; 30.6 ft length; 1,007 lbs max fuel; 865 lbs payload w/max fuel; 304 mph at 24,000 ft cruise w/1500 mi. range; 1,900 fpm climb, 88 kt stall. You should see how it looks, though… very unconventional and very sexy. I’m sure laptops have been used in general aviation aircraft for some time now but I just read this amazing article and had to share it. I suppose a conventional airplane would have a PC, not a Mac, right? 
For anyone shopping for laptops, I urge you to nose around for deals. I’m writing this on one I bought from a trusted friend. It’s a 486 DX, 8 mb ram, 420 mb HD, 14.4 modem, Win 95, MS Office, Netscape Navigator 3, internet ready. Not exactly new or fast but it was only $650. Good deals can like this can be found if you’re patient and persistent! learning to fly this summer, Chris Hurd San Marcos, TX – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am in the market for a laptop. Does anyone have suggestions about which models are best for moving map and connection to a GPS? There are a number of new products hitting the marketplace. There have been quite a few shown at OSH and AOPA. I just got Jetstreams latest catalog and they have 3 new products that look like they are designed specifically for what you are looking for.
