Can't fly an airplane? There's an iPad app for that
It’s not uncommon to see
iPads as integral air cockpit component in many small aircraft, as well as larger airliners. iPads have began replacing traditional flight packs for a few years now, enabling pilots to make more accurate fueling assessments and route decisions.
X-Avionics LLC’s Xavion iPad app is one of the most commonly used apps adopted by pilots of small aircraft, and according to a recent report by Popular Science, the latest upgrade does a lot more than mapping routes and making fuel calculations.
With the latest update, Xavion takes control of the autopilot function of most modern private aircraft, as soon as a problem is detected, via WiFi, calculates the shortest possible route to an airfield, and guides the aircraft to a safe landing.
The video features a test flight conducted on board of a Van’s Aircraft RV-10. As the aircraft reaches 5000 ft, Andrew Barker, CEO of TruTrak, maker of advanced autopilot systems for experimental aircraft, throttles back one of the engines to simulate a failure. Austin Meyer, creator of Flight Simulator X-Plane, taps on the iPad attached to the dashboard, opening the Xavion app, which already has a plotted course to the nearest airport.
The test took the airplane all the way down to landing, at which point the crew took over. However, should a flight crew be unable to take control at all, the app would still be able to execute a hard, but safer landing, by itself, letting crew and passengers walk away with nothing more than minor injuries and a broken landing gear.
Xavion has been available since 2013, but only now it was upgraded to be as close as it gets to an emergency co-pilot.
The app is not only for iPads, in fact, when used from an iPhone 6, it’s able to access the built-in barometer functions to detect cabin depressurization. If the crew is unable to react within 60 seconds, the app takes over and automatically takes the aircraft to a safer altitude.
The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to weigh in on future regulations in regard to iPad and even iPhone apps able to control and land aircraft in emergency situations, as advanced guidance systems can cost upwards of ten of thousands of dollars, even for small airplanes, without the portability of an iPad.