“Joby Picks Garmin G3000 For eVTOL” (Avweb) suggests that the exciting new world of drones, which I hope will have enough software intelligence to prevent flying into obstacles (see New York helicopter crash: why not robot intelligence? and Aviation weather reports at the time of Kobe Bryant crash), will have the same dashboard as today’s business jets: a Garmin G3000 (seemingly way more complex than it needs to be).
I’m wondering if this will extend the life of traditional flight schools using traditional trainer airplanes and helicopters. If a lot of our skills translate into the Super Drone world (I’m hopeful that “eVTOL” is not the final term for this category of aircraft), perhaps folks with standard pilot certificates will still have a role to play.
Here’s what the G3000 looks like inside a Cirrus Vision Jet (three touch screens on the bottom that control the two non-touch screens on top):
It’s obviously not because those systems are ideal for their applications (These things are vtoling from place to place within a built up area, not flying from the giant runways in Miami to those in Salt Lake City; their main challenge will be avoiding airspace and obstacles, not navigating long distances), so it must be for regulatory reasons. It’s probably way cheaper just to buy these than make something with an appropriate UI and get it certified.