Remote Black Box

Abstract

We have often read in the news paper about the black box of an aircraft being vital for analyzing the flight’s performance (non performance so to say!) and to understand the reasons for its failure, if any. When an aircraft has crashed, more often than not, an expensive search for the black-box is conducted which at times can be extremely costly and elusive, thus depriving of our ability to understand the causes of the crash. What great value will it be, if we could find a way to store the same flight data (or even better data) in a remote storage other than the in-flight black box and away from the aircraft? At worst at least, equip the black-box to transmit its location that can be detected by a GPS device to precisely identify its location so that costly searches can be avoided. Imagine, if we can also transmit flight data and pictures from inside of an aircraft using the same mechanism. During any hi-jacking or untoward incident, the in-flight happenings can be viewed pictorially by a control room (which, on demand can hook to the remote storage) such that the actors involved could easily be identified. This will immensely help one to frame negotiating positions or mount attempts to retrieve the control of the aircraft. The possibilities of extending its application to other areas are enormous with the availability of such a technology where one can perform online data analysis and views of inside or even outside the aircraft. For example, when an aircraft is in distress, it may be easier to understand what is causing a malfunctioning and be able to even prevent a major catastrophe.