At some point we need to drop the old technology and move on up with the new otherwise we would all still be getting pulled by horses and feinting at speeds above 10mph. Its the only sensible thing to do.

With that in mind its about time we changed one bit of kit that has been around for a long time and is in desperate need of upgrading.

The infamous aircraft black box, Cockpit Voice Recorder or Flight Data Recorder.

This device holds the key to solving many in-flight problems, not just the fatal ones as the unit records systems and voice information during the flight.

How many people realise however that the unit often doesnt record the full flight and that recordings vary in terms of usefulness due to the amount of sensors sampled?

With the advent of flash memory its about time we had a basic upgrade to allow full flight voice recording, maybe even longer and when possible more full instrument recording.

As systems become digital with the ability to report their settings over a fast internatl network and storage becomes every cheaper, why would you not want to record as much as possible?

Take for instance the Quantas baggage hold explosion the other week. There is no record of the explosion on the voice recorder because it only records around 30 minutes of audio on a loop. So all they got was the plane landing in Manila, not a lot of use! a $40 USB recorder could record for 48 hours or more.

Time, me things, to move on!