Originally Posted by
Sallyann1234
ChristiaanJ
From your experience with FDR's, what is the peak data rate that a typical large aircraft records?
My experience dates a few years, so I did a bit of "informed Googling"...
The data rate tends to vary widely, depending on the age and the size of the aircraft.
64 and 128 12 bit words per second sounds familiar to me, but it's now up to 256 wps, with 1024 wps on the horizon.
That translates to about 12 kbps raw data, and for robust transmission via satellite I would say you would have to double that (more checksums, more labels, more sync).
Doesn't sound too bad, until you multiply it by the number of aircraft in the air at any one time (about 10000, of which roughly 5000 over the US, so presumably several hundred over the Atlantic).
Not to mention there is no infrastructure to handle any of this sort of data, or assure a
continuous and robust second-by-second data stream...
As mentioned already, packets every 15 seconds are useless, a lot happens in 15 seconds.
Also there is no mention of the CVR in this context, which would easily account for another 12 kbps for the recording to be of any use.
CJ