When the first Boeing 747 Jumbo, the 747-100 took to the skies for its first commercial flight back on 22 January 1970, the flight deck was manned with 2 pilots and 1 flight engineer. The flight engineers job was to look after much of the engine details for the 747-100 in addition to assist the pilots in looking after the pilots gauges and lights.

The digitized image below, contrasts today's high-technology 747-400 flight deck (left section of image), with the 1970s version of the first-generation of 747s, the 747-100 at right. Today's 747-400 has six computer displays, a cockpit referred to as a "glass cockpit", while the original 747 had electro-mechanical displays. There are 365 lights, gauges and switches in the 747-400 flight deck, down from 971 on earlier 747 models. A reduction of information overload of 62%. All of this adds up to greater efficiency for airlines and an easier job for pilots. The instruments in today’s 747-400 are made up of computer controlled screens with the computers programmed to only show information as needed.

Photo Credit: Boeing Photo

And this is where Plastic SCM enters the scene. In order to make the developers life easier, we did away with hundreds of the menu items that you normally see in a Windows Version Control tool. Only the information needed for the task at hand is visible as a few icons above the work window while right-clicking on any element in your work window displays the relevant commands and functions. No need to “mouse around” the menu trying to locate the command you need, just point at the item you want to work with and Plastic SCM automatically knows what you want:

In fact, we think the comparison we just made with the cockpit of a 747-400 isn’t fair to Plastic SCM. Our GUI should really be compared to the next generation of Boeing aircrafts, the Dreamliner 787:

Plastic SCM – A new breed of tool that does away with the need of having a flight engineer to assist you using your Version Control tool.