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Aviation glossary

Glass cockpit

Also: EFIS, electronic flight instrument system

The aircraft

Flight deck in which most dial instruments are replaced by electronic screens that combine flight, navigation and systems information.

What it is

Traditional flight decks had dozens of dial instruments, each devoted to a single reading. In a glass cockpit that information is gathered onto a handful of screens: the primary flight display, showing attitude, airspeed and altitude; the navigation display, with the route, weather radar and nearby traffic; and engine and systems displays that present alerts and, on many types, electronic checklists.

The first cathode-ray-tube displays reached airline service in the early 1980s on aircraft such as the Boeing 767 and 757 and the Airbus A310; today they are flat liquid-crystal panels, and ever larger. Besides saving weight and simplifying maintenance, they let the crew see what matters in each phase of flight, which reduces workload.

On Vuelopedia

Boeing 767 Airbus A310

Related terms

Flight deckForward compartment from which the pilots fly the aircraft and manage its systems, navigation and communications. Fly-by-wireFlight control system in which the pilot's inputs travel as electrical signals to computers that move the control surfaces. AutopilotSystem that holds or changes an aircraft's flight path, altitude, heading and vertical speed according to values selected by the crew. TCASOnboard system that interrogates the transponders of nearby aircraft and, if it detects a collision risk, tells the pilots to climb or descend.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Glass cockpit. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit

MLA

“Glass cockpit.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Glass cockpit.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Glass cockpit. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_glass_cockpit,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Glass cockpit}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/glass-cockpit |title=Glass cockpit |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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