Originally Posted by Downwind Lander
Caygill says: "The Internet repository at FL350 is called satellite transmission. Lack of bandwidth and/or huge costs is your answer".
Don't forget that the repository entry for each flight can be wiped and space recycled at the end of each flight.
An important point is that when something happens, the data is needed VERY QUICKLY INDEED or the exercise becomes one of salvage.
Question: What would be the percentage increase in overhead costs to the industry? [You may use the exponential notation]
As already mentioned, data storage would be the cheapest part and therefore is not the problem.
Getting live data from the aircraft down to a hard drive somewhere else in the world is the problem.
In remote locations, only satellite can be used to transfer this data and maintaining a constant satellite link for every aircraft in the sky is next to impossible to do economically and maybe even practically.
And of course this problem is one of salvage, having a live data stream would not deter the fact that this aircraft has crashed so it does nothing really for aviation safety bar solve a problem rarely encountered.