An Overview of Paper Documentation Moving to Onboard Information System (OIS) for Commercial Aircraft

Paper documentation has been used in the flight deck for a long time on commercial aircraft. Pilots are familiar with tons of manuals to search information during flight to help them perform procedures to ensure safety, efficiency and comfort on commercial aircrafts. Management of interconnections among these flight manuals can be a challenge for pilots, especially when time workload is high in normal, abnormal, and emergency situations. This paper is an overview on the development from paper documentation moving to Onboard Information System (OIS), which fulfills the function of an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system. Today the EFB or OIS does not simply provide electronic documentation onboard, it could be a multi-function device interacting with other systems and pilots in the flight deck. This overview also discusses the significance of contextual information on OIS facilitates access to appropriate operational content at the right time through case study. Tangible Cockpit (i.e., Full-Glass Cockpit) could be a trend of flight deck design in the near future, which is easy to use, update, and maintenance. However, it may bring new problems during flight operations.