History of portable cockpit app companies

[Let'sgoflying!]

I was looking over my ancient handheld ipaq with its AnywhereMap, and got to wondering what the history is of the device, the software company… and all the solutions of that time (2000?).
Did ForeFlight arise anew, or from one of these companies?

 

[dans2992]

I’m believe they started with the app, coming out shortly after the iPad release.

 

[flyingron]

I’m believe they started with the app, coming out shortly after the iPad release.

Correct. The two founders were in non-aviation software businesses before they started working on Foreflight.

 

[John Collins]

Tyson Weihs and Jason Miller got together when the iPhone was released in 2007. The iPad did not come along until 2010. Prior to ForeFlight, Jason had developed a program for aviation weather. Jason learned to fly at Rock Hill, SC KUZA as a teenager. He worked as a line boy to earn flight time. I did not know Jason at the time, but bought the FBO at KUZA from the owner/operator that he worked for. I met Jason later at Rock Hill where I hangar my Bonanza. I helped Jason line up the purchase of the hangar where much of the early ForeFlight development took place. He offered me a part time job in 2013 and I have worked for ForeFlight since.

 

[FORANE]

Don't know nuttin about fruit phone software but loved the Anywhere Map Pro emergency mode ground impact arc. It is far superior to anything I have seen before or since at predicting glide range.

 

[flyingron]

Mike Busch (the guy who writes the aviation maintenance columns) used to have a IFR planning software thing called Flightmaster. The problem was it was pegged to a handheld that ceased to exist (Psion or something like that if I'm remembering right).

 

[WDD]

Mike Busch (the guy who writes the aviation maintenance columns) used to have a IFR planning software thing called Flightmaster. The problem was it was pegged to a handheld that ceased to exist (Psion or something like that if I'm remembering right).

I heard it was OK software, except it took 5 minutes to slowly display everything................

(If you've ever watched a Mike B video and his presentation style, you could possibly get the joke I'm trying to make).

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Tyson Weihs and Jason Miller got together when the iPhone was released in 2007. The iPad did not come along until 2010. Prior to ForeFlight, Jason had developed a program for aviation weather. Jason learned to fly at Rock Hill, SC KUZA as a teenager. He worked as a line boy to earn flight time. I did not know Jason at the time, but bought the FBO at KUZA from the owner/operator that he worked for. I met Jason later at Rock Hill where I hangar my Bonanza. I helped Jason line up the purchase of the hangar where much of the early ForeFlight development took place. He offered me a part time job in 2013 and I have worked for ForeFlight since.

This. ForeFlight started out as a web app the first year that the iPhone was out, and was released in the App Store on day 1, quickly gaining some notoriety in non-aviation tech circles as one of the most sophisticated and expensive apps available, amidst a sea of 99-cent fart apps.

ForeFlight was up to v3.0 natively on iOS by the time the iPad came out, and the iPad form factor revolutionized aviation - Before the iPad, there were a bunch of companies trying to do approach plates on Kindles. The one advantage of Kindles and other e-ink devices is that they're sunlight readable and extremely power efficient - If the screen image isn't changing, it uses ZERO electricity.

The downfall of the Kindle solutions was that the tradeoff with those low-power-consumption screens was a REALLY slow update rate - It took several seconds to change the image on screen. The screens were also too small for a plate to be readable if the whole plate was on the screen, and with the slow update rate it was very difficult to move around to see all the information you needed at a readable size. They just never took off because of the poor usability.

When the iPad came out with its fast touchscreen, it was game over for everything else, and ForeFlight was already far ahead of the competition and kept going full steam ahead. That's why they're still by far the leading EFB and even why the aviation industry has standardized on iPads, making it so that the market for aviation software on android tablets is pretty sparse.

 

[ateamer]

Get there firstest with the mostest. They understood the assignment.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Foreflight started with a Windows-based weather app (I was a beta tester) and saw an opportunity when the iPhone came out. As you can see from the copyright notice, this snapshot is from 2006. The iPhone appeared in 2007 and the first Foreflight Mobile became available a year later. The iPad came along in 2010. I became a subscriber a year after that.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Foreflight started with a Windows-based weather app (I was a beta tester) and saw an opportunity when the iPhone came out. As you can see from the copyright notice, this snapshot is from 2006. The iPhone appeared in 2007 and the first Foreflight Mobile became available a year later. The iPad came along in 2010. I became a subscriber a year after that.

View attachment 148887

I forgot about that. I'd love to see a screen shot!

 

[Philip98]

Foreflight started with a Windows-based weather app (I was a beta tester) and saw an opportunity when the iPhone came out. As you can see from the copyright notice, this snapshot is from 2006. The iPhone appeared in 2007 and the first Foreflight Mobile became available a year later. The iPad came along in 2010. I became a subscriber a year after that.

View attachment 148887

Even more fun, for the software engineers in the audience, not only was the first program a desktop PC program. It used the Eclipse GUI framework (Eclipse is/was a popular software development tool that was highly plugin based)! Which I find somewhat amusing.