Industry's growing emphasis on leveraging existing technology to enable flight tracking as soon and as broadly as possible could prompt the FAA to remove a significant financial hurdle keeping thousands of aircraft from being equipped with capabilities that would support the tracking initiative. The issue stems from a 2008 FAA rule mandating changes to, among other things, cockpit voice recorders (CVR). Among the many requirements is a mandate to include message recording capability for data link-text-messaging systems known as controller pilot data link communications (CPDLC)-that is part of a Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS) installation. In most cases, this requires a CVR upgrade. The rule included a forward-fit deadline of April 2010 for new aircraft, while those in service were considered retrofit candidates. Aircraft delivered since the deadline have CVRs that can capture data link messages. At issue are the retrofit requirements, which essentially mandate a CVR upgrade if FANS is added or an existing FANS installation is modified-including activation of an already installed system.
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