Alaska Airlines Replaces Flight Manuals With iPads

Alaska Airlines says that by mid-June, all of its pilots will be flying with swanky new iPads instead of stuffy old paper flight manuals. The move will save the pilots the trouble of lugging around 50lb flight bags, replacing the bulk with 1.5lb tablets from Apple. Some trees will be able to breathe easier as well, since the tablets will save the airline from issuing over 2.4 million pieces of paper. Instead, the documents will be issued as PDFs accessible through the GoodReader app. Airline navigators shouldn’t feel left out though, as the airline is looking into replacing navigational charts with iPads as well.

However, this good news comes with an interesting caveat: Because the iPad is a “class 1 electronic device,” they must be stowed during takeoff and landing.

(via Engadget)