Anyone know the amount of data that a FDR records in a given amount of time?
Wellsir, your average A330 records ARINC 717 data to the DFDR at a rate of 256 12-bit words per second. So, it's recording
384 bytes/second ... not massive at all, mostly because the digital data recording standards were drafted about five years before ColecoVision† existed (i.e., the mid-70s).
Depending on the kind of data being sent (raw ARINC 429 vs 717), the data rate to sample a 1 Hz parameter will average between 4 bytes/sec to 1.5 bytes/sec, plus whatever wrappers the transmission protocol adds on. However, 429 is on the way out, in favor of AFDX, which supports larger payloads and gives access to many more "talkers", so keep upping the bandwidth required.
Being older, an A310 may be only doing 96 or maybe 192 bytes/sec, depending on how extensively the data acquisition unit is wired (meaning the number of parameters available to be recorded ... less is cheaper and the deciding factor is usually easiest compliance with the laws in the country of registry). The A380 records data at four times the rate of the A330 (1.5 kB/sec) to be compliant with newer requirement for sampling frequency of the control surfaces. The 787 will be the first aircraft to use a new generation of recording technology (ARINC 647), where the bandwidth requirements will be somewhat greater and more variable with time and events on the aircraft, but still not very large compared to streaming video or WiFi support.
A manufacturer has, in the past (when they were offering the service), considered implementing real-time telemetry via a datalink. But that was more as a deal-sweetener for maintenance use, in conjunction with offering WiFi and video on-demand (the revenue generating stuff).
†I found out that "Coleco" is short for the Connecticut Leather Company (founded 1932). That's interesting to me because "Tandy Computers" also started life as the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company in 1919 (They still have a leather supply store in town). I think it would have been awesome to have a leather computer case.
Erm, back to the Yemen Air crash.
