Plain English Meaning

Glass-cockpit screens that show flight information as pictures and graphics — like an artificial horizon drawn on a screen and a moving map — instead of using individual round gauges with needles.

Full Definition

Electronic flight instrument displays that present aircraft attitude, navigation, and flight situation information using graphical, picture-like symbology rather than mechanical pointers and dials. The two principal examples are the Primary Flight Display (PFD), which integrates attitude, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, and heading into a single screen, and the Multi-Function Display (MFD), which presents navigation, weather, , and information in a moving-map and graphical format.