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Comment by cyberferret | Hacker News Reader

Yes, because getting ANY type of new technology on airplanes certified by the FAA (as well as the relevant air safety authorities in every other country in the world) is a laboriously long, slow and expensive exercise. It is sad, but the bright side is that is seems to be getting better nowadays as compared to when I was flying decades ago.

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Also, iPads have become a vector for bringing new tech into the cockpit, since it's not physically installed in the plane and therefore doesn't require certification. You can pull up charts, set courses and upload to the autopilot.

You can "upload" something from your iPad to the autopilot system without any kind of certification?

I have a feeling by "upload" they mean the iPad can display all the numbers that need to be manually punched into your autopilot.

This is actually kind of terrible. A compromised ipad could either compromise the planes actual vital systems for one, any time 2 systems are in communication a compromise is possible, and for two it could introduce a subtle numerical error.

I can't imagine a scenario where this ought to be allowed.

Sort of, at least in general aviation. Some of the newer avionics have bluetooth interface. For instance, popular GTN-series nav/comm can accept flight plans from Garmin Pilot software running on iPad.

Now, the iPad part is not certified, but the nav/comm (including software) is.

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