Boeing

Boeing's [NYSE: BA] Commercial Aviation Services Crew Information Services group and Malaysia Airlines have announced plans to install the Jeppesen Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) on two Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ERs. The airline will be the first carrier in the Asia/Pacific region to use the EFB.

Malaysia Airlines will have an EFB system installed, certified and delivered on the two 777s it has on order. The airline will receive its first EFB-equipped 777 in November.

Malaysia Airlines now operates 15 777s.

"We are excited to be a customer for the EFB," said Dato' Capt. M Nawawi Awang, senior general manager flight operations for Malaysia Airlines. "It will help our fleet of 777s -- already the most advanced aircraft in the sky -- reach even greater levels efficiency and reliability."

The EFB contains all documentation and forms that pilots carry -- aeronautical maps and charts, manuals or fault reporting and operations, minimum equipment lists and logbooks -- in digital format, and puts them at the crew's fingertips.

EFB also includes an on-board performance tool that allows the pilot to instantly calculate the ideal speed and engine setting for an aircraft, in any weather, on any runway, with any payload. Such calculations could increase the payload of a 777 taking off from a wet runway by as much as 9,000 kg (20,000 lbs.).

In addition, the EFB includes an Airport Moving Map application, which combines high-fidelity, geo-referenced airport taxi charts and precise navigational signals to show flight crews exactly where they are on the surface of an airport. It also gives flight crews a viewer for cabin surveillance systems, helping meet new and anticipated regulatory requirements.

Malaysia Airlines will use a hard-mounted "Class 3" version of the EFB comprising Jeppesen software, and electronics and display hardware from Astronautics Corp. of America. Boeing will work with the two suppliers to find the ideal configurations for EFB aboard its aircraft.

Boeing Crew Information Services received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification for its Class 3 EFB in November 2003, when the first commercial unit was delivered to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Installation of an EFB gives Malaysia Airlines a first step into the future of the e-enabled air transport system. Boeing intends to offer content, applications, and services that connect all the data generated by an entire flight operation -- in the air, on the ground and in the hangar -- meaningful to all users, including pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, operations departments, airport users and other potential customers.