Only flyht can do what Inmarsat's new system doesSeveral organizations have come forward lately with in-flight tracking options for airplanes, however none of them meet the ICAO amendment 40 requirements. Only Flyht's solution does. The others can give you airplane location,speed, and heading but Flyht can provide information about what's going on with the plane at that time as well as an on-ground animation that shows the planes flight behavior such as bobbing up and down or rolling side to side etc. Only Flyht can meet the ICAO distress tracking mandate. That's why when you see Inmarsat describe the distress tracking and info streaming function of their new system it can only be Flyht technology. It appears that this will be the heart and most important part of their system It appears that the technology has been imported into Inmarsat's system and re-branded. Here's what the CEO says:
So, if an aircraft is equipped with ADS-B, the service provided by the Aireon data will provide information “where” the aircraft is; provided you pay for the service that Aireon and their partners will provide. However, the service will not provide awareness about what is happening onboard the aircraft or the aircraft’s operational state. This service will not indicate “how” the aircraft is; it’s operational state and whether the aircraft’s systems are operating within normal parameters. The service will also not explain “what” is happening onboard the aircraft; is the aircraft flying within normal parameters, e.g. speed, roll, pitch, yawl, etc.? ADS-B is not a communication channel that can be modified or altered to send the rich information to benefit flight operations and maintenance that FLYHT’s AFIRS can send. AFIRS can provide real-time data from specific systems on board the aircraft, Aireon cannot since the ADS-B system implements an ATC reconnaissance function with a very specific and limited intended function.
There are many different tracking technologies that will allow compliance to certain aspects of the ICAO mandates, whether it is Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), or ADS-B, or space based ADS-B, or ADS-C – a Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS) surveillance function that will report aircraft location to operation centers. There are also technologies, like FLYHT’s, that can be installed and provide tracking in addition to or in lieu of these other technologies. However, none of these other technologies satisfy both the Autonomous Distress Tracking (ADT) requirements as well as the Timely access to Flight Data requirements, like FLYHT’s AFIRS. There are no other solutions with the extensive list of AFIR’s Supplemental Type Certificates which effectively serve as a barrier to entry. They don’t provide rich exceedance reports for aircraft systems and engines. They don’t allow real-time remote diagnostics to be performed on an aircraft while it is flying to understand a problem and avoid an accident. None of these technologies allow a ground operator, a pilot or an autonomous trigger to begin streaming the contents of the flight data recorder. They simply do not provide a complete picture of situational awareness like FLYHT’s technology does.
This last function, black box streaming, will figure very large in FLYHT’s future and in the solution of Amendment 40, Timely Access to Flight Data Recorder Information requirements.