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I was reading the FCOM for the 737 NG, and in the section about the display units I saw these as an option: Captain's Outboard Display Captain's Inboard Display F/O's Inboard Display

It also showed things like single-cue flight directors as well as other things. I have tried to look for these online and have not found any real-life pictures of this type of display unit. Is this a real option, or just very rare?

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  • $\begingroup$ I think some operators configured this option while they were transitioning from 737 Classics as these displays resemble the older analog instruments and that made it easier for pilots who were still flying both types. I've never seen photos of them either though. $\endgroup$
    – Bianfable
    Commented Oct 10 at 19:47

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Yeah, it was an option, referred to as the "six pack under glass" -- in other words the 6 round-dial instruments, displayed on a 'glass' display, with what amounts to a half-width Navigation Display inboard of the primary flight instruments (so, to the right of the Captain's altimeter, or to the left of the FO's airspeed indicator).

It allowed for commonality with round-dial 737's that an airline was flying at the same time, so that pilots could operate both the Classics and the Next Gen aircraft without having to be separated into one set of pilots being qualified on the round-dial Classics, while the others were qualified on the PFD/ND Next Gen aircraft. Being able to use any pilot on any aircraft, or reroute any aircraft to be flown by any crew, simplifies airline scheduling. And when the 737 NG was first coming out, there were airlines that flew both Next Gen's and Classics that didn't want to separate their crews into two categories, and since the customers asked for it, Boeing obliged.

Once the Classics left the fleet (or maybe even before), the need for this went away, and the alternative of PFD/ND (Primary Flight Display - the ADI with tapes - on the outboard display, and Navigation Display - the map - on the inboard display) became pretty well universal.

The single cue vs dual cue flight director, as I understand it, is simply a switch on the aircraft that maintenance can configure. Or it may be a different software load. But that's just a matter of presentation; the underlying flight director logic is still pretty well the same. Some people prefer one display or the other, but it isn't all that difficult to switch from one to the other -- just takes a little bit of time to get used to whichever one you have.

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  • $\begingroup$ Have you flown with both single and dual cue FDs? I always found using the single cue much harder to use than the dual cue one. $\endgroup$
    – Bianfable
    Commented Oct 11 at 6:49
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    $\begingroup$ Flown with both, and I absolutely prefer dual cue. But I've also read comments on another pilot forum by pilots who seem to prefer the single cue. I suspect that those who got lots of experience using single cue before ever having to switch account for much of that. $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J ♦
    Commented Oct 11 at 11:52

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