JD-EE wrote:-
I'm asking about the "worth" of continued searching simply to figure out how much more leverage the public is likely to have on BEA and AirBus to fund the continuation.
Aircraft have been written off during certification proving test flights (along with their crews), whereas here we have an a/c that on the face of it failed to perform in passenger carrying service. There is a difference, and I believe the will is there, particularly by Airbus and the BEA to resolve this conundrum once and for all. Lets be clear on this, the expense spent on acquiring bathymetry of a small part of the North Atlantic ocean has been high, but hasn't yet reached half the cost of a replacement hull.
From where I stand, the DFDR and CVR may well reveal something that could change the way in which certain air data is obtained, and likewise result in better algorithms to handle some pieces of missing data, while at the same time keeping the aircraft in stable flight. Money spent in acquiring knowledge, is far better spent than further expense (and ongoing costs) for real-time data transfer of flight parameters.
The Equatorial North Atlantic will yet get to reveal some more of its secrets, and ultimately the whereabouts of AF447. Meantime, its hurricane season and northern hemisphere vacation time. So in the autumn/fall .... ?
mm43