Rewarded for the innovative design of its Avionics 2020 cockpit, Thales is a proud recipient of this year’s prestigious Red Dot Design Concept Award. Thales is also ranked amongst the “Best of the Best” award-winners, since its Avionics 2020 cockpit has been selected as one of the 50 design concepts which stand out from the 5,000 applications submitted from over 50 countries worldwide across all categories.

Avionics 2020 represents a new generation cockpit founded on the principles of natural, hands-on interaction and human-machine interfaces. With a user-friendly cockpit layout, it incorporates tactile displays, providing pilots with an intuitive way of interacting with all aircraft systems and functions. Set for entry into service in 2020, the Avionics 2020 cockpit is simple to use and to train with, allows complex tasks to be managed easily and provides an efficient and modern environment in which to work.

Developed at Thales’s cockpit innovation hub, in Bordeaux, France, the Avionics 2020 cockpit has brought together pilots, researchers, engineers, psychologists, physicians and world-class experts in the field of human-machine interfaces and has resulted in a cockpit design that is entirely centred around the pilot.

Thanks to this multi-disciplinary approach and its two partners – Félix & Associés and Use Design – Thales has succeeded in creating a seamless cockpit where hardware and software interactions are entirely consistent from a look-and-feel perspective.
Commenting on the award, Bruno Nouzille, VP, Technical, of Thales’s Avionics business, said: “This is a major reward for the forward-thinking innovation policy we’ve put into place. It is supported by a structured process, teams with unrivalled expertise in human factors and human-machine interfaces and a workspace tailored to foster creativity, communication and the development of new technologies.”

Avionics 2020 represents a major milestone towards implementing the ODICIS (One DIsplay for a Cockpit Interactive Solution) concept. A futuristic cockpit concept, ODICIS highlights the types of technologies and innovations expected to become the norm on commercial aircraft in the next twenty years.