You might think that a military fighter pilot is going to have access to a lot of high tech equipment, but when it comes to flying, most pilots still have to use paper notebooks in the cockpit. Today, as part of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, a new solution was shown that"s based on a Windows 8 tablet.
During the day 3 keynote address, a video was shown of a Windows 8 tablet with a software solution that replicates the paper notebook content for a fighter pilot. The tablet and software were created by a company called PaceBlade, which has offices in the Netherlands and the US.
After the video was shown, Microsoft"s partners division leader Jon Roskill brought up former fighter pilot and current PaceBlade representative Erik Cornelisse on stage to talk more about the Windows 8 tablet solution. Cornelisse said that he and other pilots tried to use the iPad as a replacement for their notebooks while serving in Afghanistan, but the "iPad didn"t work" for three reasons.
One was that the regular iPad was too big and the iPad mini is too small to use, while PaceBlade has an eight inch tablet that is apparently "just right" for fighter pilots. The second reason was that the iPad"s software made it hard to organize the content needed for pilots. Finally, the iPad"s security features were not good enough compared to those found in Windows 8.
PaceBlade is hoping to expand its secure Windows 8 tablet products beyond its military use to civilian aircraft, along with police, emergency responders, government and health care uses.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft