The FAA has started distributing iPads to employees, and will give employees the choice between using a laptop or an iPad as their personal computing device by 2014. The agency, however, is rejecting BYOD for now, suggesting legal policies and HR issues are simply “too complex.”

While the agency will also investigate Android (News - Alert) tablets and RIM’s Playbook 2 as options, the FAA reportedly has already invested in a significant number of iPads. About 1,100 employees had the tablets. Anyone who made a good business case was allowed use of the iPad and anyone who wanted to work on app development was allowed to do so.

“You tell us why you want this device, and we'll let you do it in a way that doesn't threaten FAA networks," said Rob Corcoran, manager of the FAA's architecture and applied technology group, to Information Week. "One of the critical success factors has been not limiting the scope of what people are trying to do. You have no idea where that killer app in mobility will come from.”

According to Cult of Mac, the FAA listed a variety of functions that the iPad will perform for the agency and its employees. These functions include parts requests, access to shared resources, better access to legal files, report filing, access to technical manuals and replay of flight path deviations and other violations of airspace.

In addition to these functions, the FAA plans to create its own enterprise app store, allowing employees to both browse and install not only commonly used apps as well as internal FAA apps. Agency executives also plan to expand the iPad’s use throughout the agency, particularly in training scenarios. One of the agency’s training apps, QuickLook, is currently available through the iTunes store.

According to the agency, the iPads bring the opportunity for significant cost savings over Blackberry devices. Unlimited data agreements for tablets, lower costs compared to laptops and higher durability compared to laptops all account for the tablet’s cost-effectiveness. The FAA also noted they no longer had to pay to purchase BlackBerry (News - Alert) servers.

The FAA is just one of many federal agencies making the switch to tablets. The Department of the Interior, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Army and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are just some of the additional federal agencies that pilot iPads and other tablets.