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Streaming Flight Data…Creating An Aerial Central NervousSystem To Save Lives
2009 June 6tags:Airline Safety
 
,Aviation,Communication,FAA, NASA,Technology
 
,Transporation Safety  by Mitch Chester 
In
 
this
 
Web
 
3.0
 
age,
 
why
 
must 
 
we
 
rely
 
on
 
short 
 
bursts
 
of 
 
data
 
from
 
a
 
downed
 
airliner
 
to
 
help
 
us
 
piece
 
together
 
what 
 
happened
 
and
 
learn
 
how
 
to
 
prevent 
 
future
 
tragedies?
 In the fatal moments before Air France Flight 447 became aviation history, at least 24 automatic messages received at the Air Franceoperation headquarters in Paris reportedly signaled electrical failure and loss of cabin pressure. Except for these tiny puzzle pieces, amuch wider range of information is contained in the submerged flight data recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR),otherwise known as “black boxes.” If ever retrieved from their ocean resting place, it may be too late to learn the secrets within. Black boxes can be limited in their usefulness, as seen in the AP video (below) about a Qantas mishap in 2008.
 
The ill‐fated flight emitted the short messages by means of the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), whichtransmits digital data to ground stations by satellite or radio signals.The automated signaling system is built upon 1978 technology.According to
 AviationWeek.com
 
on June 5, “ACARS content only showswhat systems and computers malfunctioned, but there’s noinformation yet available about what actually happened to important parameters such as airspeed, altitude or pitch angle during the last fewminutes of the flight.”A race against the calendar is underway by an international team of investigators, which includes use of a French nuclear submarine, tofind the flight data and voice recorders. They are looking for a “pinger”which emits signals to help locate the data units, but the signal maylast only 30 days from the time it starts.Introduced in the 1950’s, flight data recorders have been improved toa new generation of digital flight data acquisition units. Over time, theFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) has required more data becaptured, such as time, altitude, airspeed, vertical acceleration,heading, time of radio transmissions, pitch and roll attitude,longitudinal acceleration, control column or pitch control surface position and engine thrust.Read a history of flight data recordersand FAA requirements from
Boeing.com
.To improve recovery of vital information, proposals for deployable FDR’s and CVR’s, designedto avoid the impact of the crash, have been made.See National Transportation Safety Board 1999 article by P. Robert Austin. Cockpit video recorders have also been proposed to enhance safety, but no one is suggesting that such images are available from flight 447.
 
We have come too far to accept outmoded technology in modern aircraft. As amazing as black box technology has become, the processof collecting reliable system metrics requires the application of new approaches.
Why
 
should
 
future
 
lives
 
depend
 
upon
 
whether
 
or
 
not 
 
marine
 
operations
 
can
 
retrieve
 
two
 
orange
 
(correct,
 
they
 
are
 
not 
 
black)
 
units
 
from
 
the
 
bottom
 
of 
 
one
 
of 
 
the
 
deepest 
 
sea
 
 
My Account My Dashboard New Post Edit Post Blog Info
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Page 1of 9Streaming Flight Data…Creating An Aerial Central Nervous System To Save Lives «6/7/2009http://sharedemergency.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/streaming-flight-datacreating-an-aerial-...
 
beds
 
within
 
a
 
30
 
day
 
period?
 
The quest for information from 447 is telling. To be sure, about 4 minutes of limited information was transmitted from the plane as it descended into the ocean. These “bursts” of information are just not enough to pinpoint a cause. If short and one dimensionalautomated messages can be emitted from an airliner in trouble, why can’t airlines deploy multi‐data systems to emit messages that wirelessly stream, as events unfold, from a plane in imminent peril? It can be done, and it must.If this were a perfect world, all commercial airplanes would be constantly streaming data to huge super computers which wouldanalyze data to look for trends and early warning signs of forthcoming technical and mechanical problems, aircraft by aircraft. It wouldbe a sort of living history of each plane, its operations and performance. In short, such a system would involve live “aviation analytics”instead of the current “Twitter” approach to short, limited messages that give only a hint as to what transpired.
 
This is not a new concept. NASA published areport in January, 2000on a “data turbine” designed to provide “constantly updatedinformation about an aircraft and its surroundings.” Part of the space agency’s Aviation Safety Program, the system was designed tosignal when something indicated a potential safety hazard. It was also designed to be one step beyond the traditional black boxtechnology as it allowed “immediate access to information that may or may not be recoverable from a flight data recorder following anaircraft crash.” The system was to be tested in 2001 with a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. This exciting technology has not beendeployed on commercial aircraft, and it is too late for the lost souls on the Airbus A330‐200 in the Atlantic, which was delivered to AirFrance in April, 2005.The problem, of course, is cost and scale. With thousands of planes with their avionic hearts pulsating in the skies every minute…worldwide…it might be considered “pie in the sky” thinking to implement such a central nervous system of constant virtual flight datainformation. Considering how many satellites, data centers, computers, software upgrades would be involved, and how much datawould be streaming, along with the expense of doing so, we need to lower expectations.
We
 
can,
 
nonetheless,
 
still
 
markedly
 
improve
 
in
-
flight 
 
data
 
technology
 
for
 
mid
 
and
 
post 
 
flight 
 
analysis.
 
 At 
 
the
 
same
 
time,
 
the
 
data
 
streaming
 
should
 
be
 
two
-
way.
 
Shockingly,
 
according
 
to
 
one
 
published
 
report 
 
on
 
June
 
5,
 
the
 
 Air
 
France
 
crew
 
had
 
no
 
way
 
to
 
receive
 
real
-
time
 
weather
 
data
 
from
 
satellites.
 
What if on‐board streaming flight and pilot data could be activated bythe crew as soon as a problem manifests itself or at the slightest hint of a potential concern? It could be broadcast from the aircraft to satelliteand land‐based receivers, monitored and recorded in real‐time. Such asystem would not be perfect, as it would be dependent upon humanactivation and might not capture the proximate cause of the incident.However, in those situations where the orange boxes were not recovered the data would provide a much greater wealth of information than is available when they cannot be found or recovered.Instead of constantly monitoring of thousands of aircraft, only thoseairplanes in trouble would use this kind of network andbandwidth. On‐board recorders could still be used, but their captureddata would longer be the sole source of in‐flight clues of what went wrong.Obviously, I am not a flight engineer or an FAA technician. I’m just apassenger who appreciates the opportunities presented by thisterabyte age. We are all familiar with the horrifying stories of passengers in September, 2001, talking on their cell phones beforetheir flights tragically ended. They reported what was happening, live,in crucial minutes. If passengers can report information via cell phonetechnology, sophisticated flight decks can do the same at a higher technological level. We can expand on the passenger cellphone example and integrate collectible flight data into “as it happens” reporting to convey valuable information about malfunctionsand errors.
 
If 
 
we
 
can
 
do
 
this
 
with
 
GM’s
 
Onstar
 
(satellite
 
linked
 
system
 
for
 
terrestrial
 
vehicles)
 
we
 
can
 
do
 
it 
 
in
 
the
 
troposphere.
 
Certainly,
 
we
 
can
 
move
 
past 
 
reliance
 
upon
 
the
 
collection
 
of 
 
vital
 
aerial
 
information
 
stored
 
on
 
hard
 
to
 
find
 
and
 
limiting
 
boxes
 
which
 
merely
 
record
 
history
 
and
 
do
 
not 
 
afford
 
proactive
 
opportunities
 
to
 
avoid
 
heart 
 
breaking
 
disasters.
 
Black boxes save lives because we learn from them. All we need is the will to develop and deploy a new generation of aircraft reportingtechnology. In so doing, we will save countless lives and Air France Flight 447 will leave a legacy of safety improvement for futuregenerations of crews and passengers.
 
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Page 2of 9Streaming Flight Data…Creating An Aerial Central Nervous System To Save Lives «6/7/2009http://sharedemergency.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/streaming-flight-datacreating-an-aerial-...
 
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,Aviation,Communications,FAA, NASA and Space Policy
 
,Technology
 
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