In The News

The National Post writes on Toronto-based company Star Navigation Systems Group and their attempt to revolutionize aircraft Black Box technology. Rather than traditional black boxes which store data in a physical box, the company's "Terrastar" onboard monitoring system would produce satellite signals to send data to a ground-based monitoring station in real-time.
 
"Part of the tragedy of Air France flight 447 is the plane's Black Box flight recorders, along with the definitive cause of the crash contained therein, might be lost forever miles beneath the surface of the mid-Atlantic."

"Viraf Kapadia, founder and chief executive of Star Navigation Systems Group Inc., is hoping his company's technology will ensure that is never again happens."

"Billed as "the new Black Box," the Toronto-based firm's Terrastar onboard monitoring system records flight data in much the same way the traditional Black Box does. But instead of storing the data in a physical box on the aircraft where it could be damaged, lost or destroyed, Terrastar encrypts the information and transmits it via satellite to a ground-based monitoring station, where it is decrypted and stored in real time."

"Say you're the vice-president of engineering for Air Canada and you're at an aviation show or conference. Something goes wrong with one of your aircraft of high priority then you will receive an email on your computer with WiFi or your BlackBerry telling you exactly what is wrong in plain English," Mr. Kapadia said."

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original source National Post