[Avionics Today 3-18-2015] InFlight Labs is currently developing a series of smart avionics, designed to "police or monitor" aircraft systems during all phases of flight. The New York-based manufacturer is currently working its Smart Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting (ACARS) system, Smart Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), Smart Emergency Locator Transmitter and a Smart Transponder.
The Smart Transponder, Smart ADS-B and Smart ELT may be activated by Air Traffic Management (ATM) when a "Mayday" message is received or the aircraft stops sending position reports.
Whenever there is an inflight crisis, instrumentation failure or avionics anomaly anywhere in the aircraft, more than the pilot or co-pilot needs to be apprised of the situation. We feel that the ATC, FAA, Flight Monitoring Services (Aireon, ARNIC, Iridium, Inmarsat and SITA) and select government stakeholders need to be informed automatically through an ‘Air-to-Ground’ avionics monitoring system," said Joseph Bekanich, a spokesperson for InFlight Labs.