Now they need to refit the jets for iPod compatibility
And Siri. "Siri - begin refueling procedure for the F-22A behind us..."
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US Air Force Agrees to Purchase $9 Million Worth of iPads
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And Siri. "Siri - begin refueling procedure for the F-22A behind us..."
Agree. The USAF will develop their own custom apps, deploy them in-house through the iOS Developer Enterprise Program, and avoid using thousands of tons of paper every year. The FAA requires paper maps and manuals to be updated every month in civilian aviation, and it likely that the USAF does the same.
The iPads should pay for themselves quickly. Just from paper printing / recycling cost savings plus the tiny reduction in fuel burned by not carrying all that extra weight. It all adds up.
I'd think that space would be at even more of a premium than weight. VFR sectional charts are good for six months, but even for VFR private pilots it's still cheaper, easier, less bulky and more convenient to carry all that paperwork on an iPad. Add IFR approach plates and the no doubt voluminous procedure manuals the military uses, and the choice becomes a no brainer.
THOUGHT THE SAME THING, BUT THEN THINK ABOUT IT. THE AIRFORCE MUST BE REQUESTING SPECIAL ASSISTANCE WITH IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVEN GIVE THEM A SPECIAL VERSION OF THE iOS THATS MORE SECURE AND INTEGRATED WITH CURRENT MILITARY SERVICES. SO THE PRICE MIGHT SEEM STEEP, ITS NOT CRAZY.
ITS NOT AN IPAD TO PLAY ANGRY BIRDS YOU KNOW.
All great information. The "wireless connectivity" must be just wifi only, because the 32GB, 3G model sells for $729 (and not $599). Wireless connectivity seems to refer to cell (phone) networks more (present day) than wifi because wifi is so ubiquitous.
This also suggests that the data from the flight logs is on the iPad storage themselves (little doubt there, but it's updated routinely through Wifi I imagine) and not on a server to be accessed by Wifi only. (Wifi on the plane is painfully slow and 3G would be needed while on the ground in the cockpit, if server access were needed all the time)
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Not too worried about an EMP taking out my iPad as the entire jet will go black...
Present day avionics are heavily shielded, so an EMP would certainly cripple an iPad, but perhaps some avionics could survive a little EMP? (especially the military cold war grade equipment from the '80's? They just need a reboot?)
Price
Sounds reasonable to me. Who knows if the total price quoted includes configuration costs or other stuff.
Sounds reasonable to me. Who knows if the total price quoted includes configuration costs or other stuff.
Yes, the whole point of using a VAR is to get the iPads preconfigured (activated, software loaded, custom settings).
No, there's no special secure iOS version. Apple has been less cooperative than RIM, Microsoft and Google when it comes to making such a validated device for the government.
It sounds like, in this case, they're simply using off the shelf EFB apps.
Neither is much concern on a cargo / tanker aircraft, which is where these would be used.
The whole point is configuring. Basically a little outfit put in the low bid to do whatever the contract required. (See first paragraph above.)
Interestingly, the contract was supposedly awarded on March 1st, but the DoD contract site doesn't mention it that day... meaning it was less than $6.5 million. Which makes sense; they only ordered about 60 iPads to start with, to see if the bidder can live up to configuring those within 30 days.
If they get them done, and everything tests out okay, then more buying can occur depending on budget and project approvals. (In other words, this is not a done deal for 18,000 iPads; it's just the beginning.) It will also mean the bidder will begin to hire more people to help configure as orders come in.
Many civilian and military contracts start this way: little bid, small company, ramp up later if you win.
That makes so much sense. It seems to me that many, perhaps the majority of all private defense contractors started out this way.
("Majority", could it be more than half of all started out this way? The only way if this isn't true is if a company was already big doing other things before the military contracted their services. Apple would be one very large example. In this case discussed here, there is probably a small company doing the configuring of the iPads and if they win, then they just became another "not small" private DoD contractor.)
Exactly. A lot of major companies of today got their big push with WW-II and Cold War contracts.
If all goes right, it's a deal for the government. If not, we get cost overruns, late deliveries and so forth, since that's easier to deal with than starting all over again with someone else.
I've been on both sides of the start-small thing, giving out contracts or getting them. Sometimes the companies only exist as long as it takes to fulfill that one contract, though.
In this case, I'd almost bet that it was just a couple of guys who are willing to make very little per device. A larger company couldn't afford to bid that low, but if it was only a profit of say, $30 per iPad over 10,000 devices to a couple of people, then that's good pay for a total of a few month's work setting them up, especially if they hire some teenagers to do it for them. Then they'll go on to something else.
"See, it not only holds the Airport Diagrams, but my Wife's recipes and the kids' Angry Birds games..."
No wonder American is exporting jobs overseas...
I can't believe the idiot comments here about something they know nothing about. Using iPads for inflight cockpit manuals is something that some airlines are already doing to save money.
The fact that the Air Force is joining this techonolgoy to cut flight costs is commendable. And yes, these iPads will be ON for takeoffs and landings as the imagery will be necessary for flight safety.
Whether each pilot will get a personal iPad I can't say. I can see a procedure whereas they will be issued when the pilot reports for duty and turned in at the end of the flight. That would make the most sense to insure the data is up to date.
Whether they're issued in this manner or each pilot will be given a personal one to take home, I'm going to guess that they won't be able to have games, etc loaded on them. Strictly flight and aircraft data would be my guess. As to power, I would be willing to bet a bunch (like Mitt's $10,000) that there will be powered access to insure no iPad battery will go dead inflight.
Come on children, knock off the stupid comments in this thread.
I can't believe the idiot comments here about something they know nothing about. Using iPads for inflight cockpit manuals is something that some airlines are already doing to save money.
The fact that the Air Force is joining this techonolgoy to cut flight costs is commendable. And yes, these iPads will be ON for takeoffs and landings as the imagery will be necessary for flight safety.
Whether each pilot will get a personal iPad I can't say. I can see a procedure whereas they will be issued when the pilot reports for duty and turned in at the end of the flight. That would make the most sense to insure the data is up to date.
Whether they're issued in this manner or each pilot will be given a personal one to take home, I'm going to guess that they won't be able to have games, etc loaded on them. Strictly flight and aircraft data would be my guess. As to power, I would be willing to bet a bunch (like Mitt's $10,000) that there will be powered access to insure no iPad battery will go dead inflight.
Come on children, knock off the stupid comments in this thread.
Military is known for excessive and wasteful spending. I wonder why? Oh yeah, it's because it's on the public's tab.
Crew have to carry a FULL SET of charts.
VFR charts, world wide
IFR charts, world wide
Airport directories (include map, frequencies, instrument approaches, etc).
Manifests
and other misc items.
oh, Weather charts.
All that is over 30lb (14kg) of weight. Some quote 70lb (33kg), each flight!
iPad can load all that, and more (like rules and schedules).
Yes, all that weight is tiny compared to the cargo, but understand for aircraft (and space craft), every GRAM increases fuel usage,
and then you need MORE fuel to move that extra fuel!
I accept your point. But then a related question: why all this was not done with laptops e.g. tablet versions? Thinkpads have nice and light tablet versions which could serve pretty well for the task.
The industry is full of attempts as using laptops, palmtops, Palm Pilots, WindowsCE devices, and even actual custom made devices, but none was an adequate solution (laptop batteries rarely lasted long enough for a flight).
iPad was simply the perfect combination.
If you do the math, you see that's an average of $520 per iPad 2. Now, we can know Apple isn't just selling them 16GB models because those retail at $499. So we can guess it's a good mixture of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. You can bet that the Gov is getting a good deal.
United...
It cost $2400 to sit in an overly-cramped seat on a United flight to Australia on an outdated airliner (1 tv per cabin section). I guess this is where my money went.
It cost $2400 to sit in an overly-cramped seat on a United flight to Australia on an outdated airliner (1 tv per cabin section). I guess this is where my money went.
D'ya think they'll ensure they switch 'em off during take-off & landing like the rest of us?
They just need to switch them to "flight mode."