Toward cockpit 3.0

Avionics developments further revolutionize the commercial cockpit environment.

Looking up into the skies near any major international airport, it is often difficult to immediately identify different aircraft types. Today's Airbus A340 has almost exactly the same proportions and configuration as a Boeing 707 of 50 years ago, but it is on the inside of the aircraft, and in particular in the cockpit, where the greatest changes have taken place in recent decades and where the next big stepping stone toward fully automated commercial flight will emerge.

When the civil jet age dawned, there were usually four crew members to be found at the front of an airliner. As digital flight controls and computerized avionics technology emerged in the 1980s, it became possible for airliner flight deck crews to shrink to just two, without any loss of safety or reduction in passenger confidence.