The
switch
from
analogue
to
digital
Until
the
1970s
,
the
walls
of
civil
airliner
cockpits
?
in
fact
every
that
was
within
the
pilots
?
?
were
studded
with
indicators
,
and
electromechanical
controls
.
The
controls
,
with
their
arrays
of
complicated
dials
,
were
generally
designed
for
a
three
-
man
:
two
pilots
and
an
.
A
typical
trans
-
port
aircraft
from
this
period
had
more
than
100
instruments
and
controls
,
the
most
important
of
which
were
packed
with
bars
,
and
symbols
.
All
of
these
jostled
for
space
on
the
various
instrument
panels
,
and
competed
for
the
pilot
?
s
attention
.
Research
aimed
at
a
solution
to
this
problem
,
conducted
in
particular
by
NASA
in
the
United
States
,
led
to
the
development
of
devices
capable
of
processing
data
,
and
the
raw
information
provided
by
aircraft
systems
,
and
it
into
an
easily
understandable
synthetic
image
.
This
development
was
only
possible
be
-
cause
of
a
fundamental
change
in
the
type
of
processed
by
onboard
systems
.
instruments
,
based
on
information
,
provided
indications
that
were
linked
to
the
associated
physical
(
for
example
air
pressure
,
,
or
the
position
of
a
gyroscope
)
.
Digital
information
,
on
the
other
hand
,
results
from
the
conversion
of
a
measurement
into
code
by
means
of
an
analogue
-
digital
.
The
digitisation
of
the
physical
data
required
for
flight
control
and
,
as
well
as
for
more
general
operational
and
informational
,
led
to
a
profound
change
in
aircraft
from
the
1970s
onwards
.
Thanks
to
improvements
in
electronics
and
computer
,
data
could
now
be
converted
from
analogue
to
digital
format
,
processed
by
,
and
displayed
on
computer
-
type
screens
in
the
cockpit
.