Convention Clips: Flight Explorer makes debut on the flight deck

In a preview of what the FAA has in store for pilots with the introduction of Free Flight, a new “wireless to the cockpit” aircraft situation display is in development by Flight Explorer, a company that provides flight-tracking services to corporate and airline customers.

The service, FE InFlight, combines Flight Explorer’s live flight-tracking and decision tools with satellite graphic weather uploads to give pilots a tactical view of traffic and weather for all phases of flight, even at destinations hundreds or thousands of miles away. The FAA envisions a similar concept for cockpits of the future, where all aircraft information would be datalinked and shared with other IFR flights. Flight Explorer includes all IFR and VFR flight-following traffic in the U.S.