Integrated Flight Data Recorder design - Data via satellite
 

Slightly ahead of what's happening right now with the AF 330 accident, but is it time for governments to mandate the design of self transmitting FDR's / CVR's that broadcast dynamic real time data streams via satellite.

There are technical issues here, particularly with antenna and transmitter integrity in the event of inflight structural issues. But with existing design capacity withstanding high G loads, then surely it's possible to build units with integral antennas and transmitters that have equivalent strucrural capacity to provide data for for the same period of time.

Clearly, this would enable much more rapid accident analysis as the physical recorders would not have to be located.

I'm sure there are experts in this field who read PpruNe who can answer this ?

Apart from the physical integrity problem, there is the daunting shear data rate problem. Modern flight recorders record a vast number of parameters(thanks toflash memory) at different intervals,but some quite fast. Presumably , each receiving satellite would would have te deal with a large number of client aircraft, so that the required broadcast bandwidth is almost beyond belief..allother bidders would cry foul.
The only way round this limitation would be if you only activated this arrangement if you knew you were going to need it !
Keith

Agreed, Keith. How many millions of fright hours have been logged since the last time the recorders had to be retrieved from deep water?

Apologies for pulling this thread slightly to one side, but has thought ever been given to the possibility of giving the FDR a flotation capability, perhaps with an attached gas bottle and inflatable bag?
In the case of a landing on hard ground and/or fire, these attachments would be broken off or destroyed without affecting the FDR's survival, but in the present AF situation with the aircraft structure apparently breaking up before or on contact with the sea the flotation ability might bring the FDR to the surface for rapid recovery.