Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Air New Zealand (ANZ) have announced plans to install the Boeing Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) on Air New Zealand's Boeing 777s and Boeing 787s. The order makes Air New Zealand the first airline to have fully certified, Class 3 EFBs on order for two different aircraft.

ANZ will have an EFB system installed, certified and delivered on the eight 777-200ERs it has on order, and also will receive EFBs on the two 787 airplanes it has ordered. Boeing is making the EFB standard equipment on the 787. The airline will receive its first EFB-equipped 777 in September 2005.

"We are delighted to have the introduction of the EFB into Air New Zealand on our 777 aircraft," said ANZ General Manager of Operations, Captain David Morgan.

"As a company we are always keen to find cost effective technological solutions, and the EFB will support us to achieve our goal of a paperless flight deck."

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.

ANZ will use a hard-mounted "Class 3" version of the EFB on its 777s comprising Jeppesen software, and electronics and display hardware from Astronautics Corp. of America.

Boeing 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 ANZ 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 into a single network for use by the entire air transport enterprise.