Boeing 787 and 500 Gb or in brief about the means of objective control

Not so long ago, a note appeared on the Habré that the Boeing 787 plane generates over 500 GB of information over a flight that needs to be transmitted in real time to the ground. I, as an aviation engineer, immediately became very fun. Therefore, I decided to tell a little about the means of objective control and cast doubt on the very controversial statement that airlines are turning into IT companies whose main task is information processing.

So, let's begin!

In general, any onboard recorder of flight modes is intended to record the modes of operation of individual critical units, assemblies and aircraft systems. For example: high-pressure turbine revolutions, temperature in the combustion chamber, instantaneous fuel consumption of the aircraft engine; steering angle; current values ​​of speed, altitude, overload, etc.

Registration systems based on the principle of action are:
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1. Analog continuous action.
The most typical representative is the three-component recorder K3-63, which records the height, instrument speed and horizontal overload indicators (plus the time stamp). Recording is made with a corundum cutter on a special transparent film, i.e., K3-63 is a real analog device.

2. Analog - impulse.
For example - MSRP-12-96. In addition to analog parameters, this system also registers one-time commands: fire on the plane, dangerous depressurization, cleaning and release of flaps, negative thrust of left and right aircraft engines, removing screws from the stop, turning off the autopilot, etc. Information is recorded on a continuous magnetic tape. erasing in such a way that it contains information about the last 75 minutes of flight.

3. Digital pulse (code - pulse).
Representatives - MSRP-64M-2, MSRP-256. Recording is also made on a magnetic tape, but already in coded form with different frequencies. Of course, more modern systems use solid state drives.

Also, registration systems are classified for testing, emergency and operational purposes. The latter do not have a protected hull and are designed to control the operation of the systems and crew after each flight .

In addition to registering flight modes and system parameters, the crew records the crew talks with each other and with ground services using separate devices. Also, airplanes are now installing video surveillance systems to evaluate the crew’s actions, although for the most part this is some kind of tribute and never a good practice (constant surveillance will strain anyone).

So, we see that registration systems are very different, although I have cited only a couple of examples from domestic ones (or rather, from the times of the USSR), which, nevertheless, are still used on many aircraft (Tu-134, 154, Il -76, An-24 and the like). Processing and analysis of information occurs on the ground after the flight (or accident) with the help of special equipment. There can be no talk of any 500 gigabytes in principle , since 40–50 parameters are most important, some of which are just one-time commands. The practice of transmitting information in real time has not yet become widespread and is still a task for the minds of the future. I would also like to note that the decoding of flight information is only a small part of the maintenance infrastructure of the aircraft.

The statement by the Virgin Atlantic director of IT should be viewed simply as a marketing statement by an IT specialist who doesn’t understand the purpose of objective control and doesn’t want more money to “decode” an HD movie on board. The main task of the airlines was, as it was, the transportation of passengers and cargo with the proper level of safety and comfort.