Modern commercial airliners are just starting to introduce large color displays into their new jets. Both Boeing and Airbus have put large colorful displays covering the cockpit to replace individual gages and dials. These massive displays are more modern, can display more information, and are highly configurable per the airline.
With these large modern displays most of them are usually controlled by dials and trackpads. In addition part of the cockpit, usually above the pilot’s head, is still mechanical switches. With these modern cockpit setups they are a blend of old and new keeping some mechanical switches while also modernizing the major parts of the system. I suspect that modern airliners aren’t fully digitized to help save on money and to save a major change to pilots to a fully virtual cockpit.
Gulfstream has taken virtualizing the cockpit to the next level with the G500 by totally filling the cockpit with touch screen. From the large navigation displays to the overhead avionics, everything is touch screens on this plane. Gulfstream touts this new highly virtualized setup at being able to bring up any information on the displays in three different locations for redundancy. Federal regulations usually require redundancy in key aircraft systems and Gulfstream has exemplified that by the ability to bring up almost any system on any screen.
What’s extremely interesting is that Gulfstream has taken cockpit communication to the next level by moving from fiber optics and wires to ethernet. The entire flight deck is network connected just like your home would be, obviously with more backups. According to Gulfstream this drastically saves on weight of avionics systems and wiring. Not only is the key to the game modernizations but it’s also about weight savings. Depending on how heavy your plane is your plane can go further and higher.
