I suppose this means that the US Air Force’s tolerance for paper-based flight manuals has tanked.

“Tablets not only way less, they can be kept up to date far more easier and much more cheaply than it is to print new manuals.”

Oh dear.  Where to start.

It’s WEIGH less, not “way less.”
And for “far more easier,” you have choice.  Either “far easier,” or “far more easily.”

I suppose that the USAF likes the idea of cloud based computing.

  wab95 said on February 8th, 2012 at 7:29 PM:
I suppose this means that the US Air Force’s tolerance for paper-based flight manuals has tanked.

Paper manuals have been grounded.

I suppose this means that the US Air Force’s tolerance for paper-based flight manuals has tanked.

Actually Wab, it’s the approach plates and sectional charts that have to be updated frequently (every few months by FAA rule), the manual doesn’t change much once you have the plane.  The former can be downloaded in a snap, without the hassle of removing and adding new ones in a half-dozen different ring binders.

Paper sectionals are great for flight planning, but they’re a pain in a small crowded cockpit.  Moving map displays coupled to GPS do away with ALL that annoying paper.

I don’t suppose that this will mean I can get F-35 flight manuals at the app store?

I remember when we received our first Cromemco CS-250 Super-Microcomputer in the squadron. It seemed like magic to complete mission planning on one of those puppies. Later we got a whole raft of Zenith Z-100’s and everyone had access to computing power. It inspired me to buy my first computer, an Apple II+ with expanded memory card and two floppy drives. It set me back over $3,000 1981 dollars. My first Mac was an LC III pizza box. Fond memories.

Paper manuals have been grounded.

Torpedoed.

Lee Dronick said:

Paper manuals have been grounded.

Torpedoed.

Shot down maybe, but never torpedoed.

Shot down maybe, but never torpedoed.

Photon torpedoed.

@iJack. I suppose that they already have e-manuals. As to replacing maps. I worked in ship navigation and remember editing charts with pen and ink, adding a buoy and such, until a new edition was published.

Shot down maybe, but never torpedoed.

My use of non-flight combat metaphors (‘tanked’, ‘torpedoed’) was meant to indicate that, with the US Air Force switching to tablet format, dare I say, change is ‘in the air’.

My use of non-flight combat metaphors (‘tanked’, ‘torpedoed’) was meant to indicate that, with the US Air Force switching to tablet format, dare I say, change is ‘in the air’.

Many military aircraft have “drop tanks” and some of them do, or did, drop anti shipping torpedoes. Not to forget ground attack, including anti armor, aircraft such as the Warthog

But I get your point, putting the iPad in the cockpit is a “ground changer” for the USAF.

“The logistics arm of the Air Force…”

Uh, no. The Air Mobility Command is the “airline” of the Air Force, operating transports and cargo aircraft like the C-17. It is the successor to the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and the Military Airlift Command (MAC). The “logistics arm” of the Air Force is the Air Force Materiel Command, which resulted from a merger of the Air Force Logistics Command and the Air Force Systems Command (the R&D and systems acquisition arm). I was never in AFLC or AFMC, but did spend a “few” years (about 15 of my 22 years in the Air Force) in the Systems Command, as well as time in the then-Tactical Air Command, Strategic Air Command/Air Combat Command, and the US Naval Academy.

It’s not clear from the article just WHICH sort of manuals will be replaced by tablets. By far the largest number of manuals in AMC would be related to maintenance.