It will probably save many pilots from early back pain! The 40-pound "Brain Bag" we always carried could easily have out-of-date pages by the time we landed from a week long trip. Although I'm not sure any iPad has enough RAM to include the thousand's of pages of regulations that we also carried...
I'm not sure why the iPads would be given to the pilot's, however. Two per aircraft would be more than adequate and their updating (which is still the biggest problem) can be done between arrival and departure (with appropriate data security procedures, of course). The actual security of the device would also be better by keeping it on the aircraft. A 'hacked' page or two could easily cause a major problem navigating in some terrain in the weather. Some kind of 'check sum' validation would probably be used, no matter where or who has possession of the devices. Most pilots want to arrive safely just as much as the passengers (whether they be people or boxes!).
Although the news item are recent, the move has been studied for a couple of years. Jeppesen, the major supplier of flight navigation charts announced its intentions to use the device long ago. I can only imagine the delay of announcing the use was delayed until more people became 'trusting users' of the devices! "This is your cockpit auto-pilot. Everything is triple-redundantly computerized and completely safe. Sit back and enjoy a great flight! Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go..."
