A Vision of Future Crash Survivable Recording Systems

For more than 40 years recording of flight data has developed from scratches made by stylus on aluminum foil, recording a handful of parameters, to silicon memory chips recording thousands of digital bits. There can be no doubt to the value obtained from airborne crash survivable recorders, however the perpetual enhancements in aircraft systems leads to the need for more data to be recorded as aircraft operation and performance become ever more sophisticated. This creates a moving target for the crash investigation community and recorder manufacturers to contend with. Today many aircraft incorporate centralized processing to automatically present information tailored to flight and operational conditions, and much of this data consists of the parameters processed for airborne recording. As changes emerge to the traditional partitioning of avionics by functionality to a design based on partitioning by flight criticality or operational applications, centralized processing increasingly impacts current systems/subsystems, customers and regulatory agencies. Gains in onboard computational power make more sophisticated onboard diagnostic and prognostic software a reality, but the emphasis tends to be on the ease of use, cost effectiveness, flexibility and integration and little thought to the airborne recording. As new technologies are introduced, it should be as a means to enhance safer air travel and utilize the effect of computational power to provide system flexibility and growth, while maintaining a minimal impact on recording systems and aircraft integration.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Web
  • Features: Figures; References;
  • Pagination: pp 337-349
  • Monograph Title: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Transportation Recorders. Transportation Recording: 2000 and Beyond, May 3-5, 1999, Arlington, Virginia

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01088115
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Jan 30 2008 12:31PM