The Farnborough International Air Show Issue

How are commercial airliner cockpits digitally evolving in 2022? As you’ll see in our cover story, commercial aircraft OEMs—primarily Airbus and Boeing—have significantly increased the number of flight operations and maintenance-focused digital services and applications available to airlines. These new services and applications have mostly been developed internally by the services divisions of the world's two largest airplane makers, and airlines now have the ability to customize the way their pilots and maintenance technicians will digitally interact with the aircraft whether they’re onboard at 37,000 feet, or on the ground, thousands of miles away from the aircraft they manage.

The standard flight deck on most new in-production Airbus aircraft for example allows pilots to view all of the same screens, information and applications that are available on the primary and multi-function flight displays on the tablet. Boeing fleet operators have the same option available when their pilots use Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro to connect to the aircraft interface device.

Boeing Global Services, and NAVBLUE—the flight data services subsidiary of Airbus—have been essential in effectively using the growth in adoption of tablet EFBs by airline pilots to extend the data streams of safety critical communications, navigation and surveillance systems beyond the cockpit. One of the most notable advancements in this area recently was the introduction of a new "Electronic Flight Assistant" by Airbus at the 2021 Dubai Air Show, look out for more on this and other innovative new digital cockpit applications for commercial airliners in our cover story.

In this Farnborough International Air Show edition of Avionics International, Jessica Reed is back with an overview of how civil aviation regulations are adjusting to the growth in the use of drones for new civilian and commercial applications. Dave Hughes, a former writer and editor for the FAA's NextGen program, makes his Avionics International debut with an article providing a status update on progress being made in the U.S. and Europe toward trajectory-based operations or TBO.

Anne Wainscott Sargent also returns with an article profiling Anuvu's development of new in-flight entertainment and connectivity technologies. We also feature coverage of a LEO in-flight connectivity panel from our recent Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit, and more! I hope to see as many of our readers as possible at this year's Farnborough International Air Show. Happy travels to all that attend.