The Benefits of Input and Output Devices in Aviation.
In the early years of commercial airlines, communications between aircraft and air traffic controllers relied solely on the use of VHF radios signals that were bounced off of the ionosphere for long range communications. This posed a problem for the airliners due to the fact that VHF radio frequencies are unpredictable, unreliable, and succumbs to interference making communications between pilots and air traffic controllers a game of chance. So they developed the Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications system.
As stated in the above paragraph, commercial airliners desired a more efficient and dependable means of communication between air traffic controllers and the aircraft. The problem, commercial airliners were forced to rely on VHF or very high frequency radios otherwise known as short wave radios which bounced frequencies ranging from 2 to 30MHz off of satellites in the ionosphere. These radios, often times proved to have unpredictable reliability due to various types of interference (Keller, 2012). The solution, The Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications system (CPDLC), a system that provides air traffic controllers the ability to send data transmissions over high frequency data links (HFDL) to commercial aircraft (Keller, 2012). This function is similar to sending and receiving text messages between mobile devices. The use of (HFDL) as a means of communication has been used by the military for years in the form of Link 16 which the military uses to pass information between the pilot and radio operators. This new system opened up a completely different channel that allows the pilot and ATC to communicate with each other while taking away the risk of transmission interference. Using a computer system called the Data Link Control and Display Unit (DCDU), the messages that were sent through the (CPDLC) are presented to the pilot in a manner that is easy to understand. The (DCDU)...