FDR Data Streamed Over A Satellite Network For The Duration Of A Flight

FLYHT Aerospace Solutions has announced positive results from the flight-test program of its Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS™) on the Boeing ecoDemonstrator aircraft. In conjunction with partners Boeing and Embraer, FLYHT presented the results of the tests to the Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee (AEEC) Global Aircraft Tracking (GAT) Working Group meeting in Kelowna, Canada. The reported analysis and resulting conclusions are receiving a positive response.

This is the first time the data from an aircraft’s Flight Data Recorder (FDR) has been streamed over a satellite network for the duration of a flight, thereby validating the Black-Box-in-the-Cloud use case. Additional first-time milestones included cockpit audio steaming, and the concurrent transmission of historical FDR and cockpit audio data and real-time data and audio.

Following the trials, the three partners concluded that “Existing, commercially available equipment and network services (FLYHT’s AFIRS and Inmarsat SwiftBroadband) are suitable for providing distress flight data and audio streaming capabilities that support ICAO objectives.”

Additional, core findings include:

Current equipment supports ICAO 10054 (International Civil Aviation Association) FDR and CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) streaming recommendations.
Inmarsat SwiftBroadband capabilities exceed bandwidth requirements to stream real-time and historical FDR and CVR data.
Limited bandwidth options such as the Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) services used in these tests can provide a useful flight-data-streaming capability.

“We are extremely proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with Boeing and Embraer on the ecoDemonstrator program,” said Thomas R. Schmutz, FLYHT CEO. “These test flights are highly valuable and the results are positive. This is another example of how we continue to demonstrate the value of FLYHT’s patented real-time aircraft data streaming. In this instance we validated its usefulness for distressed flight situations and support of the ICAO objectives for the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System mandate, or GADSS.”

The flight tests took place over 80 flight hours and the findings entitled “Analysis of Flight Data Streaming Trials on the Boeing 2018 ecoDemonstrator,” developed in cooperation with Boeing and Embraer, will be available on the AEEC website.

“These tests highlight important findings for FLYHT, Boeing, Embraer and the ecoDemonstrator program,” said Derek Graham, FLYHT CTO. “Timely access to flight data and autonomous distress tracking are key capabilities for achieving compliance with the GADSS requirement, and we are gratified to see the tests validating the solution.”

(Image provided with FLYHT news release)

FMI: www.flyht.com