Airlines and general aviation pilots have been tinkering with smart glasses for a little bit now. Some airlines are testing smart glasses to see if they can minimize passenger delays by using them, others are using them to provide better customer service, and some are even using them for plane inspections. While all that’s pretty cool and I’m happy to hear that airlines are using smart glasses, pilots really aren’t benefiting from them that much. Rarely do you hear of a pilot using smart glasses, and really they have no reason to. Well, soon they might have a reason to.

A team of three developers are working on an augmented reality application for pretty much all major pairs of smart glasses. This isn’t some application that’s going to help flight attendants deliver meals to passengers or help airlines check-in passengers faster. This is an application designed to help pilots and is meant to be used by pilots. So, what exactly is the application?

The application is called Aero Glass. Aero Glass is the first smart glasses application for general aviation pilots. It’s an augmented reality application, so it uses real-time information to overlay things on the real world. The application is being tested and is in beta. With that being said, the application is going to be released sometime soon. The website said that the first release is scheduled for Q3 of this year. So, what features does the app have? Well, let me tell you.

The application currently has a nice beefy set of features. Well, enough features to actually give a pilot some reasons to use it. The application is meant to help guide pilots while they are in the air. So, a lot of the features do just that. Currently, the application displays the following things in real-time over the pilot’s eyes:

Airports – The application displays the names of airports for the pilot when they are nearby.

Navigation Aids – Pretty self-explanatory.

ADS-B Traffic – Helps pilots keep an eye on air traffic.

Flight Plan Routes and Way Points

Airways – Helps Pilots Identify Airways

Geographic points of interest (cities, villages, visual navigation points) – Helps pilots identify cities, villages, visual navigation points, etc. by displaying their names over them.

Those are the things that the app can currently identify and display in front of the pilot’s eyes. Even if you’re not a pilot, you can easily imagine how handy this application can be and how awesome it would be to have that information displayed right in front of you.

The application already has a beefy set of features, but it’s supposed to get more in the future. The app will eventually be able to identify and display airspaces, terrain elevation, weather, and all kinds of other things. For a full list of upcoming features click here.

Now, while I talked about airlines in the beginning of this post, this application isn’t meant for them. This is an application that is meant to be used by general aviation pilots. So, pilots who don’t fly for scheduled air services and pilots who don’t fly for non-scheduled air transport operations for remuneration. Still, I can eventually see airlines using something like this.

Overall, it’s an incredible looking and incredible sounding application. They’ve already been using it during some flights, and have taken some pictures of them using it. The latest screenshot of the application looks pretty awesome:

I’m not a pilot and I haven’t tested this application, but I can definitely say that it seems useful and it looks awesome. I can’t wait till it is released, so that I can hear more people talking about it. And, I can’t wait to see what kind of ideas that it gives other developers. Overall, it seems like a solid application that is going to have a great impact on aviation.

What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section down below!