Glass cockpit

Traditional gyroscopic flight instruments have been replaced by electronic attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS) and air data computers (ADCs), improving reliability and reducing cost and maintenance.

GPS receivers are usually integrated into glass cockpits.Early glass cockpits, found in the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, Boeing 737 Classic, ATR 42, ATR 72 and in the Airbus A300-600 and A310, used electronic flight instrument systems (EFIS) to display attitude and navigational information only, with traditional mechanical gauges retained for airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, and engine performance.

The Boeing 757 and 767-200/-300 introduced an electronic engine-indicating and crew-alerting system (EICAS) for monitoring engine performance while retaining mechanical gauges for airspeed, altitude and vertical speed.

Prior to the 1970s, air transport operations were not considered sufficiently demanding to require advanced equipment like electronic flight displays.

The increasing complexity of transport aircraft, the advent of digital systems and the growing air traffic congestion around airports began to change that.

It was fitted into NASA's Space Shuttle orbiters Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavour, and the Russian Soyuz TMA model spacecraft that were launched for the first time in 2002.

By 2005, even basic trainers like the Piper Cherokee and Cessna 172 were shipping with glass cockpits as options (which nearly all customers chose), as well as many modern utility aircraft such as the Diamond DA42.

Unlike the previous era of glass cockpits—where designers merely copied the look and feel of conventional electromechanical instruments onto cathode-ray tubes—the new displays represent a true departure.

Glass cockpits are also popular as a retrofit for older private jets and turboprops such as Dassault Falcons, Raytheon Hawkers, Bombardier Challengers, Cessna Citations, Gulfstreams, King Airs, Learjets, Astras, and many others.

The articles mentioned how glass cockpit components had the added benefit of being a few hundred pounds lighter than the original flight instruments and support systems used in the Space Shuttles.

[6] On 25 January 2008, United Airlines Flight 731 experienced a serious glass-cockpit blackout, losing half of the Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) displays as well as all radios, transponders, Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), and attitude indicators.

[9] Due to the possibility of a blackout, glass cockpit aircraft also have an integrated standby instrument system that includes (at a minimum) an artificial horizon, altimeter and airspeed indicator.

While the technological innovations and flight management tools that glass cockpit-equipped airplanes bring to the general aviation community should reduce the number of fatal accidents, we have not—unfortunately—seen that happen.