Soon, airline pilots to ditch heavy paper manuals for swanky tablets!

Airline pilots will soon be provided a replacement for their heavy bags full of paper flight manuals with swanky iPads and other tablet devices.

Three major US airlines have announced plans to equip their pilots with hi-tech and lighter devices instead of traditional paper manuals, which can weigh upward of 50 pounds.

According to New York Post, experts predict the move to mobile devices will mark the start of a major trend in modern air travel with 90 percent of major airlines making the switch in the next five years.

In June, American Airlines had announced its plans of providing iPads to pilots, making it the first major commercial airline to fully utilize tablets in all cockpits during all phases of flight.

It was followed by JetBlue who announced its approval from the FAA and Delta Air Lines who said that it will be equipping its pilots with Microsoft's Surface tablets by the end of 2014.

This follows after the US' FAA approved use of electronic gadgets by passengers in offline mode during flight.