Purpose: This document sets forth the desired characteristics of a Multiple Input Cockpit Printer intended for installation in commercial transport aircraft. The intent of this document is to provide general and specific design guidance for the development of the printer. It will describe the desired operational capability of the equipment and the standards necessary to ensure interchangeability.

Equipment manufacturers should note that this document encourages them to produce maintenance-free, high performance equipment rather than that of minimum weight and size. They are at liberty to accomplish this objective by means of the techniques they consider to be the most appropriate. Their airline customers are interested primarily in the end result rather than the means employed to achieve it.

Up to now, printers installed on aircraft have generally been connected to and used only by AIDS and ACARS. These printers are in accordance with ARINC Characteristic 597 and have only one input port. With the proliferation of systems providing data to the crew, there is a need for a printer to accommodate multiple systems efficiently and automatically. This Characteristic describes the physical attributes, the capabilities and the system interface of such a printer.