SkyPlay Mini Puts ForeFlight on the Instrument Panel

Jeppesen ForeFlight is venturing further into the hardware side of aviation with the Sentry SkyPlay, an instrument that mounts in an aircraft’s panel and replicates the ForeFlight Mobile electronic flight bag environment. SkyPlay is manufactured by uAvionix, which also makes the Sentry series of ADS-B receivers for Jeppesen ForeFlight. Pricing and availability will be announced later.

SkyPlay isn’t just the one instrument that visitors to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh next week can see at the Jeppesen ForeFlight exhibit, but part of what the company said is “a connected avionics and mobile device ecosystem that brings the familiar ForeFlight experience to the panel while preserving the flexibility pilots value on their iPad.”

The launch product is the Sentry SkyPlay Mini, a three-inch display that fits in standard instrument panel holes and that has dedicated physical controls, including a rotary knob. This gives pilots the option to use the physical controls instead of the touchscreen on an iPad, and to view ForeFlight on a panel instrument as well.

Providing a panel view of ForeFlight, a so-called replay display, is not new, and Honeywell has proposed this on its Anthem avionics platform. Honeywell’s idea is to make space on the panel displays for web-based apps.

Jeppesen ForeFlight and uAvionix plan to expand SkyPlay into a family of larger form-factor displays with additional functionality. “The long-term vision shared by uAvionix and Jeppesen ForeFlight is a suite of aviation applications running on certified panel displays, anchored in the ForeFlight user experience, with certified flight functions protected at all times,” according to Jeppesen ForeFlight.