How the times have changed

 26, 2011 FAA and EASA certified the Boeing 787 Dream liner. The FAA presented the U.S. Type Certificate, which verifies that the 787 has been tested and found to be in compliance with all federal regulations. A new step into the future of flight where computer systems have almost completely taken over the controls of the Boeing 787. Over the past hundred years flight technology has changed tremendously. Ranging from when the Wright brothers took their first flight on December 17, 1903, where there were little to no controls at all on the plane to help navigate. Up until the most recent Boeing 787, which was only approved for flight this year, which has a complete glass front, in which case the entire dashboard is a large computer.

            In my recent visit to Purdue University’s aviation department I noticed how different the types of planes are for the average flyers. My first flight was this summer in a Cessna 152, a plane that was made in 1985, but highly popular in small airports, like the Plymouth Airport. The dashboard included several round instruments that let the pilot know what the altitude was, temperature, angle of accent, and a few other key things. Not very high tech compared to the planes that the aviation department at Purdue had. Where two years ago they acquired sixteen new Cirrus’s, which had the “glass fronts” quite similar to the ones on the newer jet planes. Both small planes made not too far apart are very different in the level of technology they have for pilots.

            Purdue’s Aviation department realizes the rapid increase in the technology used in these planes and they use this information in preparing for how they run their flight program. Although they have sixteen new Cirrus’s they still keep a few Cessna’s and Piper’s so that training pilots will know what to do in their future professions. Whether this is in the new Boeing 787 with their glass fronts, which the new Cirrus’s would help with. Or if these new pilots got jobs at lower, regional businesses, as private pilots, where having the knowledge of how to fly the Cessna’s and Piper’s with the round dial instruments would help, because most smaller jets do not have the most updated glass fronts.

            Purdue is advanced in this decision because most schools have either one or the other. They either have a flight force with all old planes, with the round dials and buttons. Or they have the newer planes, like the Cirrus’s with the new “glass front” style technology. Having one or the other as a learning basis can seriously set back a new pilot trying to get a job. This reason because they could either get a job for a small regional business, or as a private pilot, which have planes that use the older systems, but they could have gone to a school that only the newer planes and technology. In this case they would not know what to do. Also a new pilot could get a job for a more well known business, like Delta or Jet Blue, where they would be flying the newer modeled airplanes, like the new Boeing 787 with the “glass front”. Although if they were given an education in smaller planes with the older technology and round instruments then there would also be a lot of confusion and extra work that would have to be done to learn how the fly these different systems.