Rockwell Collins' cockpit of the future is closer than you think, both literally and figuratively. The firm's Advanced Flight Deck Simulator (AFDS), mounted at the back of Booth 4653, is fitted with four 13.3-inch, diagonal measure, flat panel display screens, virtually spanning the entire instrument display panel from edge to edge. Just as impressively, these are not Radio Shack grade displays but aviation-quality screens, and they already have flown aboard N50CR, Rockwell-Collins' Sabreliner.

The displays' large size and high resolution allows "ninety percent of what you need to fly the airplane to be available immediately," claimed George Palmer, a senior pilot who works with the firm's advanced technology systems group. "The other ten percent is available on pop-up menus."

The firm's engineers managed to minimize screen clutter in several ways. The use of colors, symbols, icons and graphics is limited. The level of detail on the displays is varied with range selection. The background of each display is black.

AFDS also benefits from advanced ergonomics, as shown by the incorporation of third-generation cursor control panels (CCPs) with pilot-size hand grips, dedicated function buttons and positive-click control knobs, a fully functional glare-shield-mounted, flight guidance control panel and multifunction key pads (MKP) fitted to the console.

Palmer said the four-screen system will be designed to allow dispatch with one screen inoperable. Even so, full system redundancy will be maintained. "After take off, you can actually lose three of the four displays and maintain full functionality with no new learned steps," he claimed.

AFDS can be fitted with functioning flight controls so that the system can be "test flown" in a ground-simulation environment. The displays, CCPs, MKPs and glare-shield control panel also can be installed as a complete system in an aircraft, such as the firm's Sabreliner, for flight tests.

In addition, AFDS is fully reconfigurable, thereby providing the flexibility to change the number, orientation and size of the displays.