Boeing 757/767 cockpit display upgrades. Photo courtesy of Rockwell Collins
UPS is bringing Boeing 787-style cockpit avionics displays to its fleet of legacy 757s and 767s under a new avionics display upgrade program. Large-screen displays will replace 26 current line replaceable units, mostly display and flight instruments with large 15.1-inch flat-panel display screens.
The key driving force behind the decision by UPS to upgrade its 757 and 767 avionics displays was the coming obsolescence of the existing cathode ray tube (CRT) displays on those airframes. According to UPS, the new displays are also 80 pounds lighter than the current CRTs.
By eliminating 80 pounds per aircraft, UPS expects to reduce its fuel burn by 55,000 gallons of fuel per year, while reducing emissions by 523 metric tons. In the past, the air cargo operator has seen similar weight reduction when it replaced paper-based aircraft manuals with electronic flight kits that saved about 70 pounds per airplane, resulting in a reduction of 1,200 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Russ Gossman, lead project engineer for the 757/767 cockpit display upgrades at UPS, said the cargo carrier expects initial supplemental type certifications by early 2018, with full-scale fleet production to begin by the end of 2018.
“This is a Rockwell Collins display suite that replaces the six existing EFIS and EICAS CRT displays with 3 integrated LCD displays and as such, Rockwell Collins will provide the majority of the hardware needed for this upgrade program,” said Gossman, adding that the complete upgrade is expected by the end of 2020.
The upgrade will be provided across a total of 75 Boeing 757s and 62 total 767 aircraft, including three newly purchased passenger-carrying 767s that will be converted into air freight carrying airframe configurations.
Outside of addressing the CRT obsolescence, new flight operational capabilities will also be enabled by the 787-style displays, including automatic dependent surveillance broadcast In, synthetic vision and cockpit display of traffic information. UPS can now also enable in-trail positioning, flight-deck interval management and CDTI-assisted visual separation, Gossman said.
“The [vertical situation display] will enhance situational awareness by providing the crew with a profile view of the vertical path of the aircraft along with flight path EGPWS information, thus correlating the vertical path with the surrounding terrain,” said Gossman.