Aviation data recorders trending smaller with greater networking capability

By John McHaleDesigners of aviation data recorders for military and commercial aviation say the devices are trending toward improved networking capability and smaller sizes with in a market that continues to offer opportunities. Security -- especially in military flight recorders -- is becoming high priority as well with information assurance requirements being implemented even for unclassified data."I believe the market is trending positive for both military and commercial," says Frank Willis, vice president of military and aerospace systems for Physical Optics Corp. (POC) in Torrance, Calif. "Both verticals are looking for solutions that reduce life cycle cost, but offer a robust level of functionality that help reduce size, weight, and power. Currently, most military platforms do not include a flight data recorder, crash survivability memory unit, or digital data bus connectivity. This translates into opportunities for retrofits and upgrades across the services."The U.S. Navy has released OPNAVINST 13210.1A that updates the policy for incorporation and installation of required avionics safety systems into Navy and Marine Corps aircraft," Willis says. "This includes crash survivable recorders, controlled flight into terrain avoidance, airborne collision avoidance systems and Military Flight Operational Quality Assurance (MFOQA) capabilities using a common solution across all platforms. This is a current issue across all service manned and unmanned platforms."POC's FAERITO recorders are in production for the S-76C++ helicopter, Willis says. The company's Digital Data Set (DDS) is used on the T-45A/C. The DDS includes the data acquisition unit and control panel, which combined provide audio, video, data loading, data recording, data encryption, wireless download, an ED-112 crash survivable memory unit and 128 gigabyte non-volatile memory, he adds."We are seeing the same amount of opportunities [in military and commercial applications]," says Paul Davis of Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronic Systems in Littleton, Mass. "However there have been significant delays in the schedule and execution of these projects. In some cases, the size of the projects has been reduced in scope and size. Projects are being funded with less money initially. So a recorder may change to a reduced number of channels or size of storage. When more budget money becomes available, the recorder and storage will be scaled to meet expanded needs." FAA requirements"The FAA has well defined aviation requirements for the different aircraft type classifications," Willis continues. "Part 119, 121, and 125 define specific aircraft types. The Technical Standard Orders (TSOs) identify specific minimum performance requirements for FAA approval for new data, audio, and video recorders. Given the number of new commercial platforms envisioned to be produced over the next 10 years, this is again an opportunity. "The other area for opportunity is in the general aviation Part 91 classification," he says. "In our discussions with a number of private operators the ability to download aircraft parametric performance data and understanding the overall health of their fleet is a major area of importance. This type of recorder due to the nature of its requirements will be light weight, low cost, and non-intrusive to the platform. This is a new area of opportunity for the recorder industry."Networking capability Enabling network centric capability is major requirement for flight data recorder end users. Networking capability or in other words "addressable equipment with maximum configurability" is what they are looking for, Willis says. This includes Ethernet protocol with an IP address and subnet mask that is changeable according to the platform requirements, he adds."Many new systems are changing to a network centric architecture," Davis says. "The major systems are then sending send data (files) to a network file server."