Can iPads and flash drives be friends?

Scenario: I'm in class and suddenly want to access/edit a document I have saved on my flash drive.

I've found cables such as this on Amazon and wonder if it would work.

Is the iPad even set up to read documents from a flash drive? Can I use Pages to open a document or Numbers to open a spreadsheet which are saved on my flash drive?

Semi-Related question:
Can Pages edit MSWord documents?

TIA =)

Couple of options...

1. Use dropbox app and keep everything there and you can access from any computer and iPad.

2. Jailbreak the iPad....get file from Cydia....get iPad camera connect kit....and you can navigate the thumb drive through the connect kit.

Then you can download apps like documents to go and/or good reader to edit them.

Hyperdrive

Probably the only option to use as you describe.

HyperDrive iPad Hard Drive

Email them to yourself so you can open them when you need them.

Dropbox gets my vote. All my uni stuff is in my Dropbox folder, meaning I can access it from any iPhone, iPad, PC or Mac anywhere anytime.

A lot of apps like Essay, Goodreader and bunch of others support Dropbox right out of the box and you can even open documents in Pages or Keynote from Dropbox (though you can't save them back to Dropbox yet unfortunately).