[LINK] Flash drives in the sea?

[Glen Turner]

On Tue, 29 Apr 2014, Stephen Loosley wrote:

> When so much is connected to the Internet, why is the aerospace industry 
> using technology that predates fax machines to look for flash drives in 
> the sea?

That is to focus on the device rather than on the system.

For sure planes could send data continuously. But just consider the 
systems integration aspects of that. Firstly, the black box cabling has to 
be duplicated, without threatening the integrity of the black box. 
Secondly there has to be antennas at multiple attitudes on the aircraft 
(as we want it to work when the plane is out of a normal attitude). 
Multiple antennas implies multiple transmitters. And transmitters imply 
power and contol cabling, to areas where no cabling had been planned. And 
antennas imply changes to the airflow over the aircraft, which have to be 
modelled; and changes to fuselage inspection. And before you know it a 
handwaving idea is a considerable design and refit in practice.

In the case of MH370 it wouldn't have helped at all. The transmitter would 
have been turned off with the other aircraft position reporting systems. 
The only reason MH370 maintained contact with Inmarsat is that the 
pilot-in-command (whether the pilot paid by the airline or some 
interloper) had no knowledge of that aspect of the Inmarsat terminal's 
operation.

Oh, it shouldn't be able to be turned off? Well given the odds of fire 
being started by cabling plant doesn't that present issues of its own? And 
does it really run 24x7? And how is maintenance done?

I am not saying this is impossible. I am saying that to characterise a 
black box as a "flash drive" is to miss the items which cause the design 
hassle.

-glen

-- 
 Glen Turner <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>