Apple could soon be rolling in lots more cash soon, as the US Air Force has expressed interest in buying a whopping 18,000 units of the iPad 2.
Pilots wont be playing Angry Birds, however, as the tablet computers will be used to replace manuals and navigation charts, which collectively weigh upwards of 40 pounds and need to be carried by pilots and navigators.Captain Kathleen Ferrero, a spokeswoman for the Air Mobility Commands, told Bloomberg that the airline industry is way ahead of the Air Force on this issue, with most airlines already switching to tablet computers.The final figure for how many tablets will be bought could range from as little as 63 units to as many as 18,000, and the iPad 2 is not necessarily the only model under consideration, as the Air Force appears to be open to alternative brands that are roughly equal. This might give Samsungs Galaxy Tab, for example, a shot at being the Air Forces tablet flagrunner.“My job in the US Air Force would have been truly enhanced if Id had one of these,” said C.E. Wallace, Vietnam veteran and NCO for 13 years in the US Air Force. “All the bulky technical manuals for each of the systems and aircraft in the tablet. And all of my troubleshooting notes and records I made on those spiral notebooks in the tablet. All of those work orders, aircrew debriefing notes and all of those many many forms in the tablet. I get new trainees, I transfer my files, with my comments, to their tablets! Downloading the data from the aircrafts malfunction analysis system and from the individual black boxes into the tablet, incredible!”The Air Force is expected to make its request for the transition to tablet computers within the next week or two.Source: Bloomberg
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