Tablets on a Plane: American Airlines Rolls Out iPads for Pilots and Galaxy Notes for Flight Attendants

Did you know that we could save on jet fuel by ditching the paper version of flight manuals that the FAA requires pilots to carry on board all flights?

That’s what American Airlines recently argued in support of its move from paper to digital flight manuals via a new fleet of iPads for pilots’ use in the cockpit, according to a story from PCMag.com.

According to American Airlines, the shift from the 35-pound paper kit to the iPad version will save the company roughly $1.2 million of fuel annually. "This is a very exciting and important milestone for all of us at American Airlines as we work to modernize our processes and best meet the needs of our people," said John Hale, American Airlines vice president.

"With this approval from the FAA, we will be able to use iPad to fully realize the benefits of our Electronic Flight Bag program, including improving the work environment for our pilots, reducing our dependency on paper products and increasing fuel efficiency on our planes. We are equipping our people with the best resources and this will allow our pilots to fly more efficiently."

But wait, there’s more good news.

Flight attendants are also getting in on the tablet fun. American Airlines announced that it plans to distribute 17,000 Samsung Galaxy Notes from now through 2013, according to a report from Jaunted.

The Samsung “phablets,” as users often lovingly call them since they’re larger than smartphones but smaller than most tablets, will be used by attendants to take orders and access customer information in real time.

Check out the video of American Airlines’ Galaxy Note deployment below.