A primary flight display or PFD is a modern aircraft instrument dedicated to flight information. Much like multi-function displays, primary flight displays are built around an LCD or CRT display device. Representations of older six pack or "steam gauge" instruments are combined on one compact display, simplifying pilot workflow and streamlining cockpit layouts.
Most airliners built since the 1980s — as well as many business jets and an increasing number of newer general aviation aircraft — have glass cockpits equipped with primary flight and multi-function displays.
Mechanical gauges have not been completely eliminated from the cockpit with the onset of the PFD; they are retained for backup purposes in the event of total electrical failure.
Read more about Primary Flight Display: Components, Layout, Drawbacks
Famous quotes containing the words primary, flight and/or display:
“It was the feeling of a passenger on an ocean steamer whose mind will not give him rest until he has been in the engine-room and talked with the engineer. She wanted to see with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own hand the massive machinery of society; to measure with her own mind the capacity of the motive power. She was bent upon getting to the heart of the great American mystery of democracy and government.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“In all her products, Nature only develops her simplest germs. One would say that it was no great stretch of invention to create birds. The hawk which now takes his flight over the top of the wood was at first, perchance, only a leaf which fluttered in its aisles. From rustling leaves she came in the course of ages to the loftier flight and clear carol of the bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)