Missing airliner

[CDMA ENG]

On a serious note though I am surprised after the Air France incident that the motors’ computers are tied to a independent GPS signal as well. I am not sure how important positional information actually is but if you are trying to account for strange anomalies to the motors I would think basic information like altitude, speed, and heading from independent sources instead of relying on a “central” computer whose own inputs may be in question.

I know that the motors are all monitored in real time though an engineers eyes are not actually looking at the motor unless it is running out of spec but it can serve as another source of information.

I also suspect that if the communication channel is not able to be switched off like the transponder is then the engineers have looked at the motor’s performance characteristics and the authorities have drawn their conclusion about the flight from that.

CE

[flyer]

[quote=CDMA ENG][quote=flyer]Crazy as that seemed, it did help sell more airplanes, CE. Today, you could wave goodbye to your license, your job, and probably your retirement package if you pulled a stunt like that.[/quote]

That’s not a denial I’m hearing! 😛

CE[/quote]

Actually, CE, even if it was acceptable, I’ve really never had the desire to fly a jumbo jet that way. Guess the aerobatic flying I did on smaller aircraft when I was younger was enough for me.

[ucodegen]

[quote=CDMA ENG]On a serious note though I am surprised after the Air France incident that the motors’ computers are tied to a independent GPS signal as well. I am not sure how important positional information actually is but if you are trying to account for strange anomalies to the motors I would think basic information like altitude, speed, and heading from independent sources instead of relying on a “central” computer whose own inputs may be in question.

I know that the motors are all monitored in real time though an engineers eyes are not actually looking at the motor unless it is running out of spec but it can serve as another source of information.

I also suspect that if the communication channel is not able to be switched off like the transponder is then the engineers have looked at the motor’s performance characteristics and the authorities have drawn their conclusion about the flight from that.

CE[/quote]Umm can’t go into too much detail else I might describe basics to building a GPS guided missile. GPS only provides position and time (if you have 4 sats) Proper feedback loops do account for motor problems. The biggest problems are when your sensor inputs go bad. They don’t always tell you that they have gone bad. You have to deduce it from the divergence in ‘solutions’.

PS: GPS itself can be spoofed, so you don’t want a direct connection between control surfaces and GPS.

[joeypants05]

I don’t think its realistic to think we could have a perfect system at tracking aircraft as anything you put on the aircraft could be defeated and a worldwide radar system on the ground is just not feasible as the oceans are massive and politics would probably prohibit it from getting very far

I do think it will be become easier to actively track aircraft as technology is adopted. Aircraft that have high speed internet connectivity through a satellite system typically have a inertial reference and GPS signal so that the antenna can properly point and track a geosynchronous satellite while moving. This data could easily be transmitted over the same communications system and be used for tracking and recovery operations.

[Author]

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