Flight planning and communication

A chart display system for displaying aeronautical charts on a touch screen display device in a cockpit of an aircraft, comprising:

• a digital database stored in non-volatile memory of a computer, communicatively coupled with the touch screen display device;
• a plurality of aeronautical charts stored in the digital database;
• and
• a real-time panoramic view captured by an external camera and displayed entirely across the touch screen display device, wherein the touch screen display device laterally spans the cockpit;
• a charts panel displaying one or more of the plurality of aeronautical charts overlaying the real-time panoramic view on the touch screen display device, wherein the charts panel receives a selection of one or more of the plurality of aeronautical charts via touch gestures on the touch screen display device;
• wherein the charts panel receives selection of an icon identifying a corresponding airport chart based on an origin airport, a destination airport, a list of favorite airports, and a list of proximate airports;
• wherein the icon pins the corresponding airport chart to a location on the touch screen, and enables manipulation of the corresponding chart with touch gestures including at least one of dragging, scrolling, rotating, and zooming:
• and
• wherein the list of proximate airports comprise a plurality of airports ordered from nearest to furthest from the aircraft and numerical indications corresponding to distances from the aircraft to each of the plurality of airports, wherein an order of the list and the distances update in real-time during a flight.

A method for providing a heads-up chart on a touch screen device in a cockpit of an aircraft, comprising:

• displaying, on the touch screen device, a real-time panoramic view from a forward-facing camera mounted to the aircraft, wherein the touch screen device laterally spans the cockpit;
• displaying a menu overlaying the real-time panoramic view, the menu including a charts indicator, the charts indicator being adapted to enable selection of a charts panel;
• receiving a selection of the charts panel and automatically displaying the charts panel overlaying the real-time panoramic view such that the charts panel may be moved on the touch screen device allowing access to both a pilot and a copilot;
• wherein the selected chart is draggable to a preferred location on the touch screen device;
• wherein the selected chart is pinnable for maintaining in a fixed location on the gestures including at least one of scrolling, rotating, and zooming:
• wherein the selected charts further comprises the plurality of icons receiving a selection of one or more airport charts based on an origin airport, a destination airport, a list of favorite airports, and a list of proximate airports;
• wherein the list of proximate airports comprises a plurality of airports ordered from nearest to furthest from the aircraft, and numerical indications corresponding to distances from the aircraft to each of the plurality of airports, wherein an order of the list and the distances update in real-time during a flight;
• and
• upon an indication of an airport via the charts panel, automatically displaying an airport chart for the airport that corresponds to the indication, the airport chart overlaying the real-time panoramic view.