New Thales single-display cockpit concept showcased at Paris Air Show

Posted by John McHalePARIS AIR SHOW BLOG, 21 June 2011. Thales officials unveiled a cockpit design with only one touch-screen display that takes up the entire flight deck and is intuitive like an iPad or iPhone. Company officials demonstrated the display this week at the Paris Air Show.The concept -- called Odicis (one display for a cockpit interactive solution) -- has synthetic vision, navigation displays, cabin security camera views, and more all on one screen and controlled by the pilot.Thales is calling this cockpit 3.0 with early analog mechanical displays being cockpit 1.0, and the first glass cockpits being cockpit 2.0, a Thales spokesman told me today at the show."With every version cockpit displays increased in size," and now with Odicis it is the largest display possible. It will be possible to reconfigure the human machine interface as the display's configuration is entirely designed in software, he says. "It is a single display adapted to any aircraft" whether it’s an Airbus 380 interface or a A400M.Thales also is building capability into the system so that future pilots will be able to make small human factor adjustments to their screen, however just because the instruments are all represented on one display doesn't change certain rules -- such as the location of the primary flight display, he says.It is a design that is suited for new platforms and not retrofits, he says.The display is in its early stages, and is not expected to be fully deployed until about 2020, the spokesman says.