Real-time downloading and analysis of QAR data using Air-to-Ground wireless communication

Due to the limitation of communication technology, the downloading and analysis of Quick Access Recorder (QAR) data in the past are carried out after flight. This is the first time that QAR data’s real-time download and analysis experiment is carried out in China by using Air-to-Ground wireless broadband communication technology. Firstly, a dedicated communication frequency was obtained. Then, a complete Air-to-Ground wireless broadband communication network has been constructed. Based on this, 34 actual tests were carried out on the flight from Beijing to Chengdu, and got about 280,000 QAR real-time data. The integrity, consistency and delay of QAR data transmission via Air-to-Ground communication network are tested. The test results show that the integrity of downloaded QAR data is 99.99%, the consistency rate of data content comparison is 100% and the average round trip delay of QAR data transmission is 71.45 millisecond. It’s fully meet the needs of real-time analysis. Secondly, the method of QAR data decoding is introduced. A real-time QAR data decoding software is developed to decoding while downloading. Finally, based on the real-time decoded QAR engineering data, the corresponding application software is developed. This work can not only solve the lag caused by QAR data post-flight analysis, but also can monitor the operation status of aircraft in real time, supervise flight safety, discover potential safety hazards in time, and realize efficient management and emergency disposal.