Airborne data acquisition systems and ground support equipment provider Flight Data Systems (FDS) unveiled its new Sentry cockpit voice and flight data recorder (CVFDR) this week at Heli-Expo. According to the Florida-based company (Booth C3545), the new system incorporates its "Memory Shield" technology, which meets the crash survivability requirements of ED-112A while minimizing size, weight, and power, and offering increased memory capacity.

“We took the best features of the industry’s recorders and added innovative approaches to data acquisition and memory protection, making Sentry a leading solution for commercial and military aircraft," said Darren Privitera, the company’s founder and managing director. He added, "The system is not just a CVFDR, but rather a crash-survivable data acquisition platform that can host a wide range of capabilities into one single line replaceable unit (LRU).”

In addition to the required Arinc-717 interface used on standard CVFDRs, Sentry offers additional interfaces that create a flexible architecture for forward-fit and retrofit programs.

It can also be converted from a combined flight data acquisition unit and CVFDR by adding expanded data modules from FDS's modular acquisition unit (MAU), a miniature data acquisition system currently in use on commercial and military aircraft. Other MAU modules, including a quick-access recorder, pitot-static input, GPS splitter and receiver unit, and wireless data transfer can be further added to the Sentry unit, combining multiple LRUs into one system.