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Running head: GLASS COCKPITS
Glass Cockpits: Why Glass Cockpits are the Future of Cockpits
Daniel (no last name for you)
PO High School of Kt County, Wde, D
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Abstract
Some cockpits in aircraft today still use instruments that use
methods and techniques that were invented over 30 years ago.
Methods and techniques made over 30 years ago use gauges and
mechanical parts to display information. The old displays are
complicated, and easily clutter the cockpit. Glass cockpits are
cockpits that use electronic displays. The electronic displays
of today and the future make information available to the pilot
at the touch of their fingertips. Also, they make the
information easy to read and cut down on the cockpit clutter
created from old instruments. Some advantages that come out of
glass cockpits are more accurate information, and more reliable
information source. Glass cockpits are more accurate and more
efficient than its predecessor.
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Glass Cockpits: Why Glass Cockpits are the Future of Cockpits
Introduction
In the 1970’s, most transport aircraft had over 100
instruments in the cockpit (“Glass Cockpit”, 2006, p. 1). Due
to the infant status of practical computers in cockpits, pilots
could not have high tech 3D displays that did the job of 40
instruments. With today’s technology, pilots can. For example,
the space shuttle Atlantis has nine large LCD screens that can
be customized to display a large array of information (“The
Glass Cockpit“, 2001, p.1). Before, the pilot (or other crew
members) had to do numerous calculations from readings taken
from instruments to get the results he needed to fly the plane
safely. The computers in a glass cockpit do a lot of calculations
for the pilot: accurately and almost instantaneously. The pilot
just needs to simply glance at the screen to retrieve the
information he wants. Glass cockpits are more accurate and more
efficient then its predecessor.
History of Electronic Cockpit Instruments
The beginning of electronic instruments was not that long
ago. Until recent (20-30 years recent) developments, computer
technology was not advanced enough to be used practically in
a cockpit. In the 1970’s the average transport aircraft had over
100 instruments and controls. Due to the large number of
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instruments and the extreme demand on the pilots, NASA did
research on the best course to take. They came out with an LED
(Light-emitting diode) glass cockpit, which Boeing used in the
Boeing 767 in 1982. After Boeing made that move, flight safety
and efficiency increased due to the pilots better understanding
of what was going on (“Glass Cockpit”, 2006, p. 1). But what
started all this progress in glass cockpits? The
miniaturization of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) and liquid crystal
displays, but the instruments made with these were made to look
just like the old instruments, just display information
electronically. Despite that, progress was still made with the
pioneering of these devices (CRT‘s and LCD‘s). The new
instruments of the time were not flawless though, the
instruments had many problems of there own.
Conventional Cockpits
Conventional cockpits are cockpits that use traditional
instruments. Some traditional mechanical instruments are the
turn indicator, altimeter, and the air speed indicator. The
altimeter uses a vacuum drum with a needle on it to tell what
the pressure is. The altimeter gets the altitude from this by
having a pressure the pilot calibrates and it subtracts it and
displays it on a needle. The problem with this is that to display
the right altimeter the pilot needs to have the correct pressure
to calibrate it, and if the pilot does not have that then he
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is lost. Despite that, mechanical instruments are reliable and
rugged. They do not rely on small chips and transistors that
can easily be damaged by an overflow in current so they can be
used as backups in case something does happen to the electronic
systems that powers the glass cockpit. An electrical failure
could bring down the whole house of cards (Horne, 2000, p.4).
Glass Cockpits
Glass cockpits are the future of aircraft cockpits. A glass
cockpit is a cockpit with electronic displays. An example of
a glass cockpit suite is the G600, by Garmin. The G600
drastically reduces pilot workload making it easier on the pilot
and also makes it safer as the pilot can digest what he needs
to know quicker and more effectively (“Garmin Spreads The
Wealth”, 2006, p.1). Glass cockpits can be as simple as a seven
segment LED display that displays the altitude of the airplane
and it can be as advanced as a high tech 3D display of the
surroundings outside of the airplane. A problem with glass
cockpits is that it relies on electricity. If the power fails
in the airplane, how is the pilot going to fly the plane? Another
problem is that some of the components used in a glass cockpit
are sensitive to excessive current and they may be damaged if
to much current is introduced to the circuit somehow. Although
there are some problems with glass cockpits, the advantages
heavily outweigh the disadvantages. Before glass cockpits,
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pilots played a huge role in the flying of the aircraft, they
had to calculate his fuel consumption rate, see how much fuel
was going to last them how far, where they were on the map, when
they had to turn. Being a pilot and not having a glass cockpit
to help him out is extremely difficult. However, with a glass
cockpit, it is as simple as looking at the screen, touching the
fuel statistics tab (the computer responds to the touch screen)
and reading off its data. The flight systems integrated in some
of the aircraft today will tell the pilot anything he needs to
know. Ranging from where the aircraft is in the world and the
current weather, to the diagnostics of the aircrafts engine,
on a simple screen on the dashboard (or on the HUD). Imagine
a pilot in the seat of a Boeing 737 and fog starts to role in.
The visibility drops to 400 feet. All the other aircraft have
to delay their flights when his, equipped with Boeings
Next-Generation HUD, has the runway outline superimposed on his
windshield so he can leave right on time because he can see where
he is going (Anger, 2003, p.1). Glass cockpits have numerous
advantages.
Required Components
The whole glass cockpit would not be possible without solid
state electronics. Solid state components include transistors,
diodes, and even LCD’s. Solid state components replace the
vacuum tubes that made computers extremely large and require
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a large amount of voltage. Vacuum tubes were a lot larger than
solid state components, they required an excessive amount of
electricity, and they often burned out.
Without solid state
components the practical use of complicated computers in
cockpits would not be possible, as solid state components can
be extremely small while vacuum tubs have a limit to how small
they can go. Some other components that are required are
resistors and capacitors. Resistors are needed to lower current
as resistors resist current flow (Wheeler, 1989, pg. 35), and
capacitors are needed for timers, and other electronic
techniques. But those are not the only components used in the
glass cockpits, like displays for example.
Displays
Displays are very important in glass cockpits. For the
pilot to get the information he needs he has to be able to easily
read the displays easily. A widely accepted and used display
is the LCD. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. When current
is passed through the liquid crystal it aligns and blocks light
from passing through, hence it can display shapes, symbols, and
other items in it (Wheeler, 1989, p.243). Liquid crystal
displays change where reflects light and where it does not, but
it does not produce light so anyone can see where its letting
light through. So in order to see what the maker wants people
to see there needs to be a back light or some other kind of light
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source. LED’s make great back light sources as they require
little electricity and can be made in a variety of colors,
including red, blue, and green. LCD’s are used in pretty much
every glass cockpit produced today.
Turn Coordinator
The turn coordinator is used to display the angle of the
planes wings and the slip of the plane in a turn. In a mechanical
turn coordinator, it uses a gyroscope to keep the planes wings
representation in the instrument parallel with the ground. When
the plane does tilt the gyroscope resists the change and keeps
the planes representation still parallel to the ground. In an
electrical instrument, it uses a tilt sensor to tell at what
angle the plane is at to electronically display it to the pilot.
To get more into detail about it, electricity is fed into the
tilt sensor which outputs data to an analog to digital
converter. After the converter it then goes to an LCD display
(or LED, does not matter) which displays the angle calculated
by the tilt sensor and the converter. The turn coordinator is
a pretty important instrument to the pilot. It lets him know
how fast he is turning, whether he is slipping to much or to
little, and it lets him know if he is turning when he does not
want to be. Even helicopters have an instrument that works like
this, if not the exact same way (Colucci, 2002, p.2). The turn
coordinator is a somewhat simple and yet important instrument
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in both mechanical and glass cockpits.
What is Better?
Electronic instruments are superior to conventional
mechanical instruments. Mechanical instruments can be misread,
miscalibrated, and defective. Electronic instruments can also
be misread and defective but there is a smaller chance of that
happening as a virtual needle on an LCD screen can not come loose
or be bent. Electronic systems can communicate with satellites
and networks to get exact and current information about there
location, and even get there exact location. Such information
can be the pressure so the computers in the cockpit can calibrate
the altimeter device automatically so the pilot can be sure that
the altitude he is reading is precise. Passengers on small,
general aviation planes are 100 times as likely to die in a crash
as those on large commercial airliners, according to federal
statistics (Tatge, 2005, p.1). Small general aviation aircraft
most likely use old technology mechanical instruments, so it
is possible that if all the small aircraft used glass cockpits
then safety might improve, which benefits the passengers and
pilots of such aircraft. The military can benefit more so than
any of other group. Imagine U.S. Rangers fighting in Iraq in
the dark of night, they call in a bomb strike to take out there
enemies, 10 minutes later F-15 fighters drop in a blow up exactly
where the enemy was said to be (Tatge, 2006, p.1). Without glass
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cockpits, the F-15 fighters would not have been able to do that.
How do the pilots see in the dark? HUD (Heads Up Display) imposes
an infrared camera’s images on the screen so the pilot knows
the exact situation, and other systems tell him what direction
to go, how far he is from the target and other information. The
military can always benefit from advances in glass cockpits.
Electronic instruments are superior to traditional
instruments.
Future of Glass Cockpits
Glass cockpits are open to constant upgrades, and new
ideas. There will always be a need for new and better systems.
Constantly, people are coming up with ideas, like this one,
having the environment around the plane imposed on the cockpit
window like in a 3D game. This would easily give pilots the
ability to fly at night like they would the day. In the future
glass cockpits will lower in price as they will become the
standard as everything will revolve around it. With the new
computers giving precise and exact readings there will be
highways in the sky. Pilots just need to fly through rings super
imposed on the windshield, which would require exact and precise
readings (Horne, 2000, p.3). Problems that would be fixed would
be the reduction of space required between aircraft as the
precise readings given by the glass cockpit will tell the pilot
exactly where he is and where everyone else is. Flights will
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be faster, more efficient, and overall better for everyone as
a whole. In the future the only reason mechanical conventional
instruments will be used, is for backups as it is possible for
electronic instruments to fail.
Method
For my method I conducted an interview with Airman First
Class Harris, from the Air National Guard, on October 23, 2006.
The list of questions I asked him helped me get an idea of how
glass cockpits help real pilots. The interview contained the
following questions:
1. Are glass cockpits the cockpits of the future?
2. Do pilots favor glass cockpits over regular ones?
3. Are modern electronic instruments more accurate than modern
“gear” instruments?
4. What is a glass cockpit?
5. What are some instruments found in most cockpits?
6. Are modern electronic instruments more reliable?
7. What advantages does a glass cockpit bring to the pilot?
8. Would you rather use a glass cockpit?
9. Do you still need old analogs as backups?
10. What would you like to see in the future?
The primary research did not help much with the development of
my product. My product, which is a turn coordinator fits in a
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box 12” x 12” x 12”. The turn coordinator has a display panel
that shows approximately the angle its at compared to the
horizon and has LED’s that light up to represent the tips of
the wings. It uses 12 LED’s in all to represent the wings angle,
which represent the planes angle at degrees 0, 45, 90, 135, 180,
225, 270, 315, and 360.
Results
When asked “Are glass cockpit’s the cockpits of the future?
“, Airman First Class Harris responded “Yes, they are beneficial
to a lot of aspects in aviation so I believe they are”. The next
question “Do pilots favor glass cockpits over regular ones?”
had him reply “I sure do, they are easier to use”. Harris then
answered “Yes, they give exact readouts” when I asked him “Are
modern electronic instruments more accurate than modern ‘gear’
instruments?”. To further support the secondary research on
glass cockpits, I asked “What is a glass cockpit?”, and he
replied “A glass cockpit is a cockpit with electronic
screens/instruments”. The next question was “What are some
instruments found in most cockpits?” which Harris replied with
“Turn coordinator, altimeter, and heading indicator”. I then
asked “Would you rather use a glass cockpit?” and he gave me
the answer “Yes, it would make my job easier”. The interview
gave me a real world look on glass cockpits and aviation, instead
of just theory’s and ideas.
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Discussion
Glass cockpits are overall more efficient and more
accurate than conventional mechanical cockpits. The readouts
given by the electronic instruments are absolute, it would be
very hard to misread it. Even though glass cockpits seem
invincible and flawless, they are susceptible to damage, for
example, too much current flowing through its circuits and
damaging all the components in the circuit, rendering the
instruments useless. There is still a need for old mechanical
instruments, as they can be used as backups in case the
electronic ones fail. Some of the components that could get
damaged in the instruments are transistors, diodes, capacitors,
resistors, and LCD’s. Therefore, glass cockpits are more
accurate and more efficient then its predecessor.
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References
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http://www.boeing.com/commercial/news/feature/
Colucci, F. (2002, July). Marine Corps mulling over options
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from http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/
Garmin spreads the wealth to retrofit market. (2006, July
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http://www.aero-news.net/
The Glass Cockpit. (2001). Retrieved September 22, 2006,
from http://www.nasaexplores.com
Glass Cockpit. (2006). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 28,
2006 from http://www.wikipedia.org
Horne, T. (2000, September). Future Flight. AOPA Pilot.
Retrieved September 27,
2006.
Tatge, M. (2006, January 9). Top gun. Forbes, 177, (1), 98.
Tatge, M. (2005, November 8). Fly by wire. Forbes, 176,
(11), 83.
Wheeler, P. (1989). Electronic fundamentals. Benton Harbor:
Heath Company.
Wilson, J. (2006). Power and Glass. Retrieved September 27,
2006 from
http://www.military-aerospace-technology.com/