Are Traditional "Black Boxes" Obsolete?

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Canada's Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. has created TerraStar, a real-time in-flight safety monitoring system that could make the post-crash search for cockpit voice and flight data recorders -- as well as some crashes -- obsolete. TerraStar tracks, and can continuously encrypt and transmit to ground-based monitoring systems, up to 18,000-plus aircraft parameters per minute. The system filters "out of spec" indications as "alert notifications," which are prioritized in remote aircraft monitoring data feeds that can be accessed in real time, online. In practice, that means that operators on the ground could know about problems with an aircraft before the plane's pilots, or (in the case of distracted or incapacitated pilots) air traffic controllers observe any symptoms. The company believes that capability could not only vastly improve scheduling and maintenance, but also provide operators with the necessary data to break some accident chains before the crash. And, in the case of Air France 447 and the recent Air India crash, it could have provided more information to investigators, immediately, says the company.

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http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/bl ... 601-1.html

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i haven't heard anything about it recently but remember reading an article about a company that is using old iPods to make lightweight black boxes for GA aircraft.

The tech is definitely available, but when you start talking about the satellites and data centers to make it work, it's substantially more expensive to operate than traditional boxes...and so airlines have been reluctant to even try it.