Apple IPads in Cockpits May Mean End of Paper Charts

Apple Inc.’s iPad won approval from U.S. regulators to display navigational charts for some charter pilots, a step that may speed the end of the decades-old tradition of paper maps in the cockpit.

With the Federal Aviation Administration approving iPads in test projects at carriers including Executive Jet Management, a unit of Warren Buffett’s NetJets, and Lake in the Woods, Illinois-based N-Jet, the way is open for pilots at airlines and other commercial carriers to seek authorization for the devices, said Les Dorr, an agency spokesman.