June 20, 2011
Eleven new full-color, flat-panel display screens in the Shuttle cockpit replace 32 gauges and electromechanical displays and four cathode-ray tube displays. The new "glass cockpit" is 75 pounds lighter and uses less power than before, and its color displays provide easier pilot recognition of key functions. The new cockpit is expected to be installed on all shuttles in the NASA fleet by 2002, and it sets the stage for the next cockpit improvement planned to fly by 2005: a "smart cockpit" that reduces the pilot's workload during critical periods. During STS-101 Atlantis will fly as the most updated shuttle ever, with more than 100 new modifications incorporated during a ten-month period in 1998 at Boeing's Palmdale, Ca., Shuttle factory.
Topics: Aircraft instruments, Manned spacecraft, Technology, Cockpit, Glass cockpit, Palmdale, California, Space Shuttle Atlantis, aerospace engineering, Shuttle, Display technology, Space exploration, Engineering