Air France Flight 447, aviation industry and the passengers

Air France Flight 447, what makes me angry that the simplest tech is not used on such super-tech Airbus aircrafts like GPS and satellite localisation. They are not able to localise the vanished aircraft. I think it needs a full open investigation and risk assessment of the aircraft industry. This pantomime safety feature before each take off the crew exercises, its just placebo and the life west's are good for children sandbox play. Well in the case of the Hudson landing they may have surfed there purpose, but in general?

Since I fly these parts of flying have never been upgraded, they stay as they have been 30 years ago. That the commercial aviation is still only depending on radar and not on satellite technology is a joke. Every average Joe and Josephine is driving his/here truck down to the local bar to get drunk, has his tomtom on the windshield (navi as the Germans say). The truck fleets are managed by satellite communication. If and if such a feature is in general totally senseless than I would like to know why, maybe its a reason that the live west stay as they are in case Oxygen ... and landing on water, which I rarely see that aircrafts land on water and passengers jump into the ocean to have a swim.

I have the impression that the aviation industry needs a closer look, I suspect that they operate and behave like the car industry, we produce trash as long as we clash with the whole against a wall, bigger aircrafts, more passengers stuffed like sardines in it and the basic safety question remain in downsizing modus. The airbus 320 costs between US$55 million to US$65 million, the live west cost ....

A modern live west, could inflate automatically, in case the plane dips down the ocean, severall live west's come up and send a signal with embedded GPS, like the avalanche jackets. --- With a monthly fee of £10 ($20.5) for the satellite tracking you are ready to go anywhere without getting lost. The battery keeps the GPS running for around 15 hours, long enough for your longest trip outside. Start monitoring around in Google Maps by the internet crowd. The tracking is not limited only to a specific area, it works everywhere around the world. The system updates every 10 seconds and there is no need to be behind a computer all the time. Email alerts can be sent to your Blackberry or text messages to your mobile about the whereabout of your Jacket. The accuracy of the Jackets GPS system pinpoints you down to an area of just 4 spare meter.--

228 passenger's on an aircraft carrying more computer power than the aircraft itself, 1-2 mobile devices per average Joe and Josephine + let say about 50 laptops. This in flight-modus bundled to grid computing apps to number crunch, necessary data. !! WIFI on board, it's just an idea how to use resources when they are not used in home mode. A Macbook if it's experiences "flight modus" it kicks of safety features for the HD, isn't it ?

And by the way passenger seats, did you experienced any substantial upgrades since you have sit down on springs on old Boeing 797 chairs, yes the Airbus chairs are new, but I personally hate them all and the Airbus ones even more, they are uncomfortable, you feel like on an electric chair in prison.

So what frequent flyers need to ask for are: the safety upgrade in the cabin, chairs and live west. I am sure this industry is segmented like the mobile phone industry, why we have been tortured with all the crappie mobiles, because Symbian is one thing and the GUI a other and no one talks to each other, not the hardware-, software-, and interface manufacturer, they all work in there own professional eso tunnel.

"As long we can produce and sell what we have in the same configuration as to many as we can who cares". We learned all from Microsoft and the car industry.

Can we not expect some inspiration from the car related Airbag industry? The parachutes nowadays, can reduce significantly the speed of an space shuttle at touchdown. If an aircraft brakes a part, but designed in cells, each cell could have a parachute which ejects and sails down a bit more smoothly than without.

WWDC is around the corner let Apple build aircrafts, a serious MacBook Air.