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iPods to be Used as Flight Data Recorders

Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri Mar 02, 2007 03:40 AM
from the cockpit-white-boxes dept.
Media Media (Apple) Hardware
udamahan writes "Flight Global reports small aircraft manufacturer LoPresti is introducing a system that uses an iPod as a flight data recorder. The company states that they chose the iPod for its size, low power requirements, and the 'thousands of developers passionate about writing applications for the iPod.' The article notes that data recorders are typically used for maintenance, flight/safety analysis, or, assuming proper protection, crash investigation."
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iPods to be Used as Flight Data Recorders 25 Comments More /

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  • Shocking... (Score:5, Funny)

    by arlo5724 (172574) <jacobw56@gmail. c o m> on Friday March 02 2007, @03:44AM (#18204338) Homepage
    Hmmm, not so sure if I like the sounds of this. I broke an iPod by dropping it about 4 feet, I can only imagine how one will fare after plummeting 30,000...

  • In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrNaz (730548) on Friday March 02 2007, @03:53AM (#18204376) Homepage
    A commercial airliner has crashed killing all 182 passengers on board as well as 8 flight crew. Investigators have recovered 191 flight recorders.

  • Personal Flight Recorder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tymbow (725036) on Friday March 02 2007, @03:58AM (#18204412)
    I don't think they mean to replace the "blackbox" as most people understand it. It is accurately described in TFA as a Personal Flight Recorder. As a (recreational) pilot I can imagine a number of situations where it would be useful to be able to record basic flight data such as altitidue, speed, ground track etc. to look at after a flight.

    • Re:Personal Flight Recorder (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rvw (755107) on Friday March 02 2007, @07:10AM (#18205190)

      I don't think they mean to replace the "blackbox" as most people understand it. It is accurately described in TFA as a Personal Flight Recorder. As a (recreational) pilot I can imagine a number of situations where it would be useful to be able to record basic flight data such as altitidue, speed, ground track etc. to look at after a flight.
      Another thing is that most small airplanes with propeller engines crash at much lower speeds, leaving the plane a lot more intact than the crashes we see on the news. The ipod would therefor have a much bigger chance of surviving a crash.

  • A whole new meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

    by iliketrash (624051) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:00AM (#18204418)
    This brings a whole new meaning to a "disk crash."

  • And then! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Konster (252488) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:01AM (#18204422)
    Flight International is doing a similar thing, but with the Zune, it crashes before the plane does!

  • Flash drives would be better.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WarwickRyan (780794) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:03AM (#18204432)
    ..as they are virtually indestructable.

    Mine has been dropped, smashed, been through both washing machine and dryer. All with no noticable damage and no dataloss.

    My HDD recorder, on the other hand, was destroyed by a small amount of coca cola :(

  • Excellent Idea... (Score:5, Informative)

    by T-Bucket (823202) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:11AM (#18204468) Homepage
    Sounds like an awesome idea. Chances are it's going to be used more to record normal flight data than for crash investigation. They're not aiming it at airliners. Most small single-engine piston airplanes are simple enough that the reason for the crash can be easily discerned from the wreckage. There aren't 300 redundant systems to go through. It's usually a case of "Hey, look, that piston is poking out through the engine block." or "Hmm, the 100 hour private pilot ran off the runway into a ditch trying to land in a 30kt crosswind". What it'll really be useful for is stuff like engine monitoring and whatnot. One of these reviewed by your mechanic at annual could make his job a LOT easier...

  • What developers? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ptur (866963) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:21AM (#18204506)

    'thousands of developers passionate about writing applications for the iPod.'
    What developers? At Apple? Or will PortalPlayer *finally* publish its datasheets so others can write code for it too?

  • See (Score:4, Funny)

    by mastershake_phd (1050150) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:26AM (#18204526) Homepage
    Harrison Ford had it right, the Ipod can be used for data storage. Hollywood hacker movies are right again. One of these days someones going to hack the Gibson.....as soon as they build the Gibson.

  • iPod as a model airplane flight recorder (Score:4, Informative)

    by heroine (1220) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:38AM (#18204592) Homepage
    Gumstix is a popular flight data recorder for models because it contains the highest computing power in the smallest space, but it's expensive. So could the cheapest $80 iPod be used as a Gumstix replacement? Can a $50 non-iPod mp3 player be used as an embedded computer or does it have to be iPod?

  • Trouble (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TrappedByMyself (861094) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:41AM (#18204602)
    Without fail, my iPod used to die on me every time I flew. 20 minutes into the flight and BAM the drive goes into wacky mode. The unit locks, heats up, makes a sickening grinding noise as the battery quickly drains.

    I finally fixed it by ripping the thing apart and re-seating the drive cable. But still...

  • I can see the headlines now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hanners1979 (959741) on Friday March 02 2007, @05:15AM (#18204710) Homepage
    "Despite recovering the flight data recorder from the wreckage, the caush of the crash is yet to be established. It has been confirmed however that the pilot was a big Pink Floyd fan"

  • This wil never work (Score:5, Funny)

    by poot_rootbeer (188613) on Friday March 02 2007, @10:17AM (#18206218)

    Won't the iPod disrupt the plane's flight electronics and CAUSE crashes, though? That's why the flight attendants always remind us that the use of portable electronic devices during takeoff and landing is forbidden, right?

    • Re:Without certification (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AlphaOne (209575) on Friday March 02 2007, @04:34AM (#18204572)
      can you hook this thing into the avionics?

      On experimental aircraft, yes. On certified aircraft, no.

      I'm not sure what value would be gained, though... about the best that could be recorded is OBS position and CDI deflection, maybe turn rate and bank angle if the turn coordinator/artificial horizon can provide feedback.

      If the aircraft has a GPS (big if), I guess you could record position and velocity data.

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