Totally not about speedos

[ffboy357]

Hi,

first of all I do apologize for this post, which is totally unrelated to speedos!
(I would not mind if the moderator removes it, but I hope this will not happen.)
Why I am posting here:
1. I feel the this speedo community close and friendly
2. It is somehow related to the Aussi government - and I know there are a lot of Aussies here.

So, it is all about the MH370 - the missing jetliner.
I just like to express my dismay with the whole aviation industry business and standards.

Just to mention - I am great fan of the NatGeo's "Air crash investigation" series (also known as "Mayday") and I read a lot about aviation industry and incidents and accidents. So, I can say I am fairly informed citizen on the topic.

What I'd like to say is: this is not the first plane missing over/under water and this is not certainly the first case when the ping locators of the black boxes were not helpful, at least just because they last only for 30 days.

And here go my thoughts:
1. Consider previous cases, like Air France 447 - it is clear that 30 days are not near enough.
2. Without being an expert - I am sure that just fitting a bit bigger Li-Ion battery that locator can last for 90 days.
3. I do understand the economic implication of retrofitting all existing planes even with a small part like a bigger battery - I know we are talking of hundreds of millions of dollars for such a retrofit.
4. I am dismayed that the current and new planes, like Boeing 777 are still equipped with batteries to last 30 days. Probably, the cost of a battery, which will last 90 days is a few dollars. And there are not and will not be millions of Boeing 777 build in order for this cost to become significant, like in automobile industry mass production. At most there will be a few thousands. So, the total cost of such battery, fitted at the moment of production will be negligible.
5. On the other side - only the cost of recovery of Air France 447 and the current and future cost of search for MH370 is HUNDREDS of millions of USD. And these are not the only cases. Only the Aussie government estimates to pay 60 MILLION AUS for the search of MH370.

***6. And these are tax payers money - not Air Liners money.***

If I draw my conclusion here - it seems like this:
1. Because of some inexplicable decision the makers of the black boxes - there are 2 major companies, which make these - are still fitting the devices with 30 days batteries. Even, the most recent cutting edge digital black boxes are fitted with 30 days battery.
2. All the governments, obviously prefer to spent tax payers money on behalf of the air line companies instead of insisting of a regulation about better black boxes and locator beacons.
3. In the current digital era - there are many people, who believe that black box technology is far outdated and there are a few much better solutions being proposed by independent smaller companies.
4. Anyhow, one, big, f*^#&$* thing - why at least not make the effort to put a bigger battery on the new planes, such as Boeing 777?
This would obviously save at least 60 milion dollars on the Aussi tax payers today.
The benefits, which will be present for the families of the victims will be MUCH more greater.

One f*$^&$* battery!

Why I focused on the battery? Because all other new technologies, beacons, locators, etc. are not proven and nobody is sure how and if they will work. And the aviation industry is conservative and stagnant by nature. But the bigger BATTERY, does not change anything - it is not new and unproven stuff:
a) it doesn't add weight to the craft
b) it doesn't change how the device will work
c) it doesn't even require new components in the device.
d) I am sure if the housing of the device needs to be a bit reworked to fit a bigger battery - this shouldn't be a problem. Although, the newest Li-Ion batteries are smaller with higher density, so even the housing might not need a change.

So, why not do it? Even if nobody really cares for the passengers and everything is all about the money, why the governments do NOT like to save hundreds of millions for themselves by this very simple way?

You saw what happened with the MH370 - just the moment they started picking the PINGS from the locator - it died. They really and probably, needed a few more days of battery power!

So, unfortunate - that they will now spend hundreds of millions and event then nobody can be sure they will find something!

[...:::sam:::...]

I get this feeling you think the flight recorders should ping for longer. :)

[ffboy357]

I believe so :)
I thanks for resuming my short story in a few words.
I appreciate the irony.

Yeah, the hell - they should ping longer and that is not a technological miracle.

[Norfcountryboy]

They could carry less duty free to compensate for the weight of a bigger battery, that's not going to bleed an airline dry, whatever they say!