Gone are the gauges, tapes and computer screens. Take a tour of Atlantis new command cabin . For shuttle commanders like Ken Cockrell, the new, improved control panels mean he won't have to take the ribbing of airline pilot buddies any longer. Atlantis is the first orbiter to be decked out with the modern cockpit. The other three shuttles are to be completed by 2002.
Any airliner coming off of the assembly line today has that same sort of technology.
To be installed by 2005, it is designed to reduce the crew's work load during critical events such as ascent and entry. It gives us much more versatility in where we put that information and interface with it. Before the cockpit upgrade, the control panel held three monochrome, green-tinted cathode ray tubes displaying lines of text and surrounded by analog gauges. Pilots had to scroll through the text to find critical information. Also replaced are monitors at the flight engineer's station and in the aft flight-deck station used for docking operations.