Aviation giant American Airline is to equip its pilots with iPads for use during flights after regulatory bodies agreed the move, new reports have revealed.

Starting this Friday, December 16th, American Airlines will begin rolling out Apple's market leading tablet across its fleet of pilots with the iOS packing devices to be used during "all phases of flight."

Apple iPad tablets adopted by pilots

With the Federal Aviation Administration approving the move after a six month trial period, AA's pilots will replace the mass of flight manuals and navigational charts currently required in paper form on every flight with both original generation iPads and the more current iPad 2.

Tipped to save the airline $1.2 million a year in weight saving and fuel economy, the move to iPad bound digital manuals and charts has also been touted as a safety measure allowing pilots to access relevant information quickly in the event of an emergency.

"By using electronic charts and manuals, the safety and efficiency on the flight deck is significantly enhanced," a source revealed to ZDNet. "This FAA approval cumulates the results from a 6 month test period whereby American flew thousands of hours with iPads to test and evaluate the product."

Whilst American Airlines is the first to fully introduce the manual replacing iPad system, it is far from the only aviation outfit to look into the move.

"Other airlines such as United, Alaska, and UPS are also reviewing this potential, but none have been approved to conduct flight operations in all phases of flight except American," the source added.

What do you make of pilots dumping their paper manuals in favour of far from glitch proof technology? Let us know via the comments box below.

Via: TechRadar