iPad Purchase Brings Digitized Data, Angry Birds to Upper Atmosphere

Written by Dabney B. on Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

The US Air Force just signed a contract to purchase as much as $9.26 million worth of iPad 2s. This purchase might seem like a waste of tax payers’ money at first glance, but it is actually a much-needed upgrade to the traditional, outdated information management system.

The iPad 2s should serve to replace a cumbersome, heavy flight bag that contains all of the navigational charts, instruction manuals, and other documents that are vital to a pilot’s mission. To top it all off, most of these documents have a fairly short lifespan. The Air Force’s Air Mobility Command requires a team to go through all of these documents every month to ensure that each one is up-to-date and accurate.

Digitizing all of this information will be a tremendous advantage for pilots. They will be able to quickly sort through the information in a small, lightweight, handheld device. Additionally, because iPads utilize cloud technology, the Air Force can quickly and easily distribute updates to every iPad in the network. Rather than relying on a team of editors and cartographers to replace a thousand maps for a thousand different planes, the Air Force will be able to make a single buy valium online 10mg correction on the central database, and then each iPad can install the updates.

It might be easy to look at the purchase as an excessive waste of tax dollars, but in reality the purchase is extremely wise and actually quite thrifty. The Air Force will have to write a hefty check to Apple, but these iPads should eventually replace hundreds of man hours, allowing the Air Force to direct those funds towards goals other than upkeep. Civilians may view iPad as expensive digital toys, but digitizing information for pilots is an excellent way to modernize the US Air Force, all while making pilots’ jobs as convenient as possible. They’ll be using it for a lot more than checking out their favorite social media networks at 5,000 feet.

Luckily, the Air Force is getting a bit of a discount. Each iPad 2 will carry a price tag of about $520, rather than the $599 that other consumers might expect. The contract allows the Air Force to purchase as many as 18,000 iPad 2s at this price, but that exact number is subject to approval and funding.

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