“Apple Computer’s popular iPod music player could become a flight data recorder (FDR) following an announcement by US light aircraft manufacturer LoPresti SpeedMerchants to introduce the device in the cockpit of its Fury piston aircraft,” Justin Wastnage reports for Flightglobal.com.
Wastnage reports, “The company says it plans the ‘full integration of the iPod into the Fury’s avionics systems.’ The iconic ‘white box’ iPod will serve as a digital data recorder, nicknamed ‘black boxes’ by the general media. The iPod, with suitable software, acts as a hard disk with the ability to record over 500h of flight time data.”
“It was not immediately clear from the company’s statement which parameters would be recorded and for what purpose. Recorders are currently used to collect data for maintenance purposes through system monitoring, for post-flight analysis in training and safety-monitoring, and, when suitably protected, for crash investigation,” Wastnage reports.
Wastnage reports, “Vero Beach, Florida-based LoPresti said, ‘The iPod becomes the first truly portable, personal flight recorder with a huge recording capacity. This is a watershed technology for aviation,’ says LoPresti vice president of operations, RJ Siegel, ‘and we are delighted to be the first to bring it to market.’ The Fury will prove the concept, but once certificated, the iPod FDR could be deployed on other light aircraft.”
Full article here.
[Attribution: MacNN]
The software: iCrash!
MW – “down”… ominous!
I wonder what on earth it was about the iPod that got their attention versus just a plain old portable hard drive.
I can just see it now, pulling one of these out of a downed plane and the investigator being upset because it got scratched.
They were all set to use a Zune, but testing revealed that the place couldn’t take off due to the excessive weight.
Audiobook: “So, you want to be a pilot.”
>Brad Kelly
Because it needs an OS and computer to run software. Flight recorders are not just hard drives. Read the orginal article for details.
Im having an iPod implanted as an artificial heart.
Man, you talk about blood on the Clickwheel…
Brad Kelley,
that’s a good question.
You could theoretically read the data on the iPod’s screen without plugging it in to a computer, but I don’t know what advantage that would be.
It must have something to do with the software already on it and perhaps the size and weight.
Come on, they’re good but not that good. I hardly think they’re that indestructable. It’s like what Microsoft said the other day about Vista running life support machines or whatever.
Think,
thanks, our posts crossed.
Meanwhile, the Zune is being tested in funeral homes as a coffin monitor. That way the dead can watch the dead. Funeral directors so far are grateful.
I would’ve thought they would use the Nano for its flash drive, but the article says ‘white box’. I guess they are not afraid of the hard drive crashing…
The article doesn’t really say much about the details, but my understanding of the iPod ecosystem is such that private companies and individuals can’t actually write software that runs on it per se. It’s a closed system. Someone jump in if I’m mistaken. It seems like they are probably simply going to offer folks who have iPods a dock connector so they can use it like a normal iPod, but the avionics system will also be able to write flight data and cockpit audio to the drive just like it was a hard drive. I don’t think anything in the article contradicts this, and it makes more sense to my version of reality. =)
@ Jack Simon…
Tx for bringing that to general attention!
All I can say is How do Microsoft execs sleep at night?
Yeah, using a hard drive is not good. That’s one reason alot of iPods crap out early, particularly those used by runners.
During takeoff you hear….
“lLeaving on a jet plane
Don’t kow when I’ll be back again……..
They were going to use a Zune but it wold only start recording if you inserted 79 points.
The Air Force requested the U2 Special Edition
Since black box is actually red in airplanes it has to the iPod nano (product)red they will be using
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How did Cisco get shafted? The only reason for them to be interested in the iPhone name was to ride the coat tails of the popular Apple branding. Cisco has only gained from this fiasco. If anything, they have been doing the shafting by sniping an obvious Apple brand name for profit.
FAA regulations are pretty tight on these sort of things. The Ipods will probably be used in parallel with conventional black box technology until it is proven equal to or better than what is currently available. Apple pioneered the park before crash hard drive system in it’s portables about 5 to 6 years ago which became standard in ipods. I suspect due to it’s miniscule volumetric foot print and high capacity an ipod could collect all instrumentation and voice cockpit data in higher detail than current systems and can easily be ruggedized beyond FAA requirements without a drastic increase in the volumetric foot print.
the real reason they will not be using it is because it fills the cabin with the ominous smell of Shit.
I can just see it now. After a plane crash, the FAA crash team all huddled around a pink nano.
“certificated” ???
Someone needs to buy a dictionary and learn how to spell Certified. Reads like a 10 year old rapper wrote it.
Now THAT is WOW!
Anybody heard how Zune sales are going? I googled for an answer, but most of the stuff was from December 2006.
The Zune seems to have died already. I read a post that said the head Zune guy had been fired but couldn’t confirm it…
To Wordsmith,
“Anybody heard how Zune sales are going? I googled for an answer, but most of the stuff was from December 2006.” Yep, thats where they are, still back in dec 06. LOL
When Microsoft yells that they have sold 1 million, then you will know thats where they are. Microsoft already has enough bad news going on right now.
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Flight recorders for personal aircraft. — Ahmmmmmm, — neat!
I think the deal here is lots of memory, cheap, and you can take it with you and use it as an iPod between plane flights so its not just sitting there waiting for you.
As far as FDA cert. These would not replace a black box but most small planes do not have a flight recorder cause its been way too expensive til now. This way planes that do multiple owner thingy can keep clear track of who flew where when and when maintaince is needed. Etc. JMHO.
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N.
Sydney….
I wrote that post about the Zune guy getting let go. It’s on the mini microsoft blog, his name is Bryan Lee and he’s quietly being shown the door according to insiders at MS.
@jim
I looked for the post but couldnt find it. Can you post a URL with enough detail to make sure I can find it? I read a lot of stuff and even responded to the main article about the Vista ad – if you look you will see my long post about why i made the switch…
Sydney…
just found it…
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/
about 1/5 of the way down the page in Safari. Or you could do a command find for “bryan lee”
– Jim
Here’s a quote from the blog…
“Also with this past week, two departures: Jim Allchin and Bryan Lee. Seeing some of Mr. Allchin’s internal emails I can only say I certainly haven’t, in comparison, pushed the envelope here with criticism of Microsoft vision and strategy; too bad he wasn’t, ah, in a position to effect change when it was needed. Mr. Lee has been griped about in the comments here before and it looks like someone is, via graceful career aikido, tapping a piece of paper on his back with “Hi! I’m responsible for Zune!” as he slips out the backdoor.”
Uh… I doubt that iPods were built to survive airplane crashes…
It’s inaccurate to say that the iPods will be used as “black box” substitutes. That has the connotation that the iPod will be used to retrieve data after an accident and must be hardened. The Fury is a GA (general aviation) aircraft. GA aircraft never have FDRs or CVRs. The iPods will be the aviation-equivalent of the “iPod + Nike” where you can record the living crap out of your flight performance, download it into your computer, and analyze the flight.
Bob
I’m glad I checked back. That was perfect!
This article is in ERROR. The iPod is not going to be used as a flight data recorder (AKA, “black box”), but simply as an audio recorder. Audio recorders are already commonly used in general aviation aircraft to record pilot transactions with Air Traffic Control. Pilots record ATC instructions so they can be played back, because these instructions can be very complicated and must be followed explicitly. LoPresti is simply introducing the iPod to this task. This is all that is going on here. The black box and flight data recorder references are COMPLETELY ERRONEOUS.
“The software: iCrash!”
That product already exists, it’s called Mac OS X.
There are several vendors already offering PDA and laptop flight data logging solutions:
http://www.pcflightsystems.com/products.html
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/aim3.php
Most of them are for Experimental class only (the inexpensive ones) but small aircraft are getting very fancy very fast!