The recently launched Surface 2, which runs the Windows RT 8.1 platform, will provide crews with key charts and navigation tools via a customised app. The tablets will replace the 17kg (2st 10lb) flight bags currently carried by pilots, reducing fuel consumption. The company expects all its cockpits to be paperless by the end of 2014.
Delta had previously tested Apple iPads as potential Electronic Flight Bags (EFB), but has recently embraced Microsoft devices. It equipped 19,000 of its flight attendants with Nokia Lumia 820 smartphones in August, which run on a Windows operating system. The sight of pilots wheeling heavy cases through airports is a familiar one, but electronic alternatives have been around for decades.
Many commercial airlines now use tablets as EFBs, and the devices are even common among single-seat, or recreational pilots. Delta pilots had been using their own tablet devices in the cockpit, but now only the Surface 2 will be allowed - a move that has been unpopular with some employees, who vented their frustrations on online forums. A Delta spokesman told the BBC that crews will be allowed to run personal applications on the Surface 2, as long as they use a separate profile.
Source: BBC News
