Cobham has announced that its AVIATOR 300D satellite communications solution and Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S) have enabled in-air connected Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) for the first time.

The live EFB capability was achieved as part of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supervised technology evaluation with Hawaiian Airlines (HAL) to monitor the transmission of communications data over SB-S.

For the evaluation, HAL has equipped its fleet of Boeing 767-300 aircraft with the current generation of Cobham AVIATOR avionics and Inmarsat SB-S service, representing the first-ever commercial flights to utilise Inmarsat's next generation, IP-based broadband service on the flight deck.

With data already being successfully collected during the on-going evaluation using the Cobham Compact Satellite Data Unit (CSDU) interface, the latest advancement confirms the AVIATOR/SB-S system can also be used to channel ACARS data via the Aircraft Data Management (ADM) technology, or Aircraft Interface Device (AID), to another interface as well: the pilot's EFB. This further supports the ultimate objective to use broadband technology and avionics for data transmission in support of Hawaiian's new eFLIE EFB programme.

Pilots can thus obtain real-time information while in flight, rather than waiting for downloads while on the ground. Applications include graphical weather, telemedicine, passenger data, aircraft documentation, etc.