kinetic (Steve)
Great question Steve. Luckily, after my aviation career, I got into emergency data communications and sold solutions to fire, police, ambulance services etc. I might be able to answer it.
As per the article, it is true; we do not currently have enough bandwidth for trancieving information from and back to aircraft. Of course, there are tens of thousands of aircraft airborne at any one time and Black Boxes do record large quantities of data, not just pilot inputs, but health monitoring information as well.
I feel that the primary reason satellites are currently not capable of such loads is because we looked to other technologies years ago, such as underwater communications pipelines, which allowed us to grow in our communications exponentially, while the RF lagged due to technology hurdles.
Currently, one of the best systems for this type of data transmission is Spectrum (Direct-Sequence spread spectrum communications - I only know the very basics on how it works; it’s very complex and requires shuttling/hopping from one frequency within a band range to another at sequenced intervals). This allows for unprecedented signal security and protection of signal degradation and [artificially] increases bandwidth, but it’s very expensive and it is very specific. Spectrum is used for spacecraft communication to a great degree (especially during control activity and going to and from orbit).
To have world-wide coverage of a Spectrum type signal, would take at least another fleet of satellites equal in number, but more than likely greatly superior in performance than our current GPS network. It takes wars and conflicts to warrant that level of government spending (I’d rather go back to compass and maps).
My sole gripe in modern aviation is electronics, not navigation, communications etc, but Fly-by-wire. I’m a big fan of cables, wires, bell cranks, pulleys, push-pull tubes etc. I don’t like the idea of a computer telling a hydraulic system what it should be doing. Call me old fashioned, but I’ve worked of Iroquois and Black Hawks, and give me the robust Huey any day. The whole concept in safe flying is really, really simple; know your limitations and when in doubt take another path (direction, go-around, whatever the situation is).
I’ve read some articles in the past, which I just had to put down (too much lingo), but the basics are here, as well as lots of other cites;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_spectrum
In short, the article hits the nail on the head; we cannot have wireless Black Boxes. Also; this was not an unusual storm for the region and time of year.
Funny enough, radio controlled planes and helicopters were the first to benefit from this signal (Called Spektrum), which allows up to 10 radios to be transmitting concurrently without any interference. It doesn’t work with carbon fibre between origin and receiver, the shadow corrupts the link.
Cheers
Mark