Airbag Deployable Flight Data Recorder for Water Landing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automatically deployable flight recorders pose safety concerns in commercial aviation due to potential inadvertent deployments, which can cause damage or injury, and face challenges in retrieving data from aircraft accidents in remote oceanic areas.
Innovation Solution
An airbag deployable data recorder system that inflates from a deflated state to deploy flight data only when an aircraft lands in water, using a pressure switch to activate the inflation device, eliminating the need for a transmitter or battery, and incorporating a lightweight location beacon for recovery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an automatically deployable flight recorder is used, then data recovery is facilitated, but safety risks increase due to potential inadvertent deployments
Solution Approach 1:
A water-activated chemical indicator is introduced as an intermediary between the deployment mechanism and the triggering event. This indicator changes color when exposed to water, providing visual confirmation that deployment should occur. The indicator acts as a mediator that eliminates false triggering while preserving legitimate water-landing deployment scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The chemical indicator is pre-positioned and pre-configured to react to water exposure before actual deployment occurs. This preliminary arrangement ensures that the system is ready to distinguish between water and non-water conditions at the moment of potential deployment, preventing inadvertent activation while enabling proper response to water landings.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If a transmitter and battery are included in the flight recorder, then location capability is improved, but device weight and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The active electronic location-finding components (transmitter and battery) are extracted from the flight recorder system. Instead of incorporating these heavy, complex power-consuming components, the system uses passive optical indicators (color-changing chemicals) that require no power source, thereby eliminating weight and complexity while maintaining location detectability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces expensive, complex, long-lasting electronic components with simple, inexpensive chemical indicators that serve their purpose effectively for the duration needed (accident investigation period). The chemical indicators are single-use elements that provide location information without requiring maintenance or power sources.
3Reliability
If the flight recorder is designed to separate from the aircraft upon crash, then data recovery is improved, but safety risks increase due to potential damage or injury from deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The chemical indicator system provides beforehand cushioning by offering a safe, passive alternative to active deployment mechanisms. The color-changing indicator is inherently safe and cannot cause damage or injury, while still enabling data recovery location functions. This preliminary safety measure eliminates the harmful effects of mechanical deployment while preserving the beneficial data recovery capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures safe and timely deployment of flight data in water landings, reducing the risk of inadvertent deployments and enhancing data recovery in remote areas without the need for power sources, thus addressing safety concerns and facilitating accident investigations.
Implementation Method 1
The pressure switch is configured to activate the inflation device to inflate the bag from the deflated state to the inflated state in response to a pressure level greater than a threshold pressure level
Implementation Method 2
The inflation device is configured to inflate the bag from the deflated state to the inflated state
Data Source
AI summary
A method and an apparatus for deploying flight data from an aircraft. A bag is stored in a deflated state on the aircraft. The flight data is stored on a memory device coupled to the bag. The bag is inflated from the deflated state to the inflated state in response to a pressure level greater than a threshold pressure level to deploy the bag with the memory device coupled thereto from the aircraft.