I find it hard to believe that the headsets they are using for software and hardware meet that level of criteria. They’re clearly using off-the-shelf parts. Some amount of care is called for sure, but 100k to apply a software patch or tweak the tech in FDRs which are swappable and upgradable? A flight recorder is 10k. You can’t tell me it costs 90k to install a new one capable of sending data over the satellite link in bursts. Clearly other countries and airlines with a similar safety record and cost of living and salaries are able to accomplish the feat.
You’re solving a human problem with technology. Pilots are resistant to data collection because of the proven track record of airlines using it against them. Unintended consequences are fatal in aviation. Saying “it ought to be easy” is an immediately disqualifying statement. You should ask instead why it is so expensive. Then decide if there’s a margin worth eroding.
What human problem am I solving with technology? I’m just saying we should have public data about turbulence so that we can understand changes to the jet stream. I’m not talking about making planes safer or solving human errors. I’m not sure how this data could possibly be used against pilots. I’m not talking about recording the cockpit; just the sensor data about what the plane is doing and experiencing.
> You should ask instead why it is so expensive.
That is literally my question. I’m highlighting that 100k seems really high to make a system that opportunistically transmits data we are already capturing locally. Rather than a flippant “airplanes should be expensive”, why not ask what is the cheapest retrofit we can do that doesn’t change the safety profile. As I said, this system should not be in the critical path and shouldn’t be a required other than the airplanes should generally be maintaining it to be functional (i.e. the SLA can be 75-90% and still provide tremendous value instead of the 100% SLA target for flight critical components which is what that 100k price tag sounds like).
That this is something highlighted by crash investigators as something that would help in corner cases like incidents over the ocean is just gravy.
