Using statistics to develop a new view on portable electronic devices on aircraft

This paper is about EMC qualification of aircraft against emissions of portable electronic devices (PED), such as mobile phones or Wi-Fi devices. About ten years ago, a so called PED environment has been defined to be used in equipment qualification and aircraft tests. The test levels are rather high and therefore extra effort is needed to demonstrate PED tolerance as per this environment. Numerous tests have been performed worldwide. Additionally, every day passengers use their devices in flight. Based on this experience, the aircraft industry has come to the conclusion that most aircraft are already tolerant against PED emissions. Based on industry experience a more realistic approach is proposed.