For years, the moving-map display was little more than a page from Mrs. Grundy’s third-grade geography book, with a moving generic aircraft icon keeping track of progress. No more.

Flight Display Systems of Alpharetta, Ga., recently introduced a data bar software upgrade to provide information such as time-to-destination and airspeed, rather than the blue screen with text that periodically obscures the map. Now the company is offering a choice of 16 realistic aircraft icon types and models, from an Airbus ACJ to a Pilatus PC-12. The icons are scaleable and owners can use commercial graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop to create a personalized “paint” scheme.

The new software upgrades are available free to current Flight Display moving-map owners and are incorporated in all new moving-map programs.