Fly-by-Wireless Plane Takes to the Sky

galactic_grub writes to tell us that engineers in Portugal have built and flown a plane with no wires or mechanical connections between the major systems, only a wireless network. From the article: "Tests flights carried out in Portugal have shown that the system works well. Cristina Santos, at Minho University in Portugal, who developed the plane, says the aim is primarily to reduce weight and power requirements. 'Also, if you do not have the cables then the system is much more flexible to changes,' she says."

Comments

Holy Crap!

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Goddamn it! A 'wireless' plane! My first thought was why the hell would you want to do that? First thing I decided after 802.11 got cheap was "wireless for convenience, wired where it matters". The following quote from TFA clued me in however:

the aim is primarily to reduce weight and power requirements. "Also, if you do not have the cables then the system is much more flexible to changes," she says.

I tell you what ladies & gents - this is one plane where I'd take notice when told to switch my cell phone off!

PS - I note the next story on the front page is "IT: Wireless Security Attacks and Defenses." Coincidence? I think not ;-)

Re:Holy Crap!

[Anonymous Coward]

A 'wireless' plane! My first thought was why the hell would you want to do that?

Do you have any idea how hard it is to hang the CAT5 all the way up there in the sky?

Do we really need this?

[DougLorenz]

Does an optical cable REALLY weigh that much that someone would want to replace it with wireless? This goes for any situation where functionality is considered to be important. I have a wireless network at home, but I've also run gigabit ethernet through the entire house. The wireless goes down from time to time, but the hard cable does not. The article talks about two benefits, weight reduction and power reduction. In both situations, I would expect that a single lightweight fiber connection and some LED lasers would not be significantly heaver, and would likely use a good deal less power... It just seems to me that the whole idea is little more than academic. I can't think of a single situation where it would be more desirable for a device like an automobile or an airplane to use a wireless system for communicating control information. Someone's got way too much free time on his hands...

Re:Do we really need this?

[ottawanker]

But think of the benefits, this way you can still control the flaps in the wing, even after the wing has broken off!