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A comment on Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone. Parent comment

Re:Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone by Alex3917 on Thursday April 11, 2013 @02:17PM (#5533696)
"I used to work on interfaces to all the computers on the latest 747 and the 787 and there is no wireless way to talk to any of the computers or sensors that have any input to controlling the airplane."

Don't they get weather data from somewhere? And if the pilot thought there was a thunderstorm or heavy turbulence in some direction, wouldn't they fly the plane through what appeared to be the clearest route on their own? (And does the autopilot not take weather into account?)

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Re:Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone by rpmcb on Thursday April 11, 2013 @02:32PM (#5533798)
"Don't they get weather data from somewhere?"

Yes, most (if not all) modern airliners have a radar dish in the nose of the aircraft. If you wanted to mess with this, you'd have to spoof radar echoes. Not something you can do from an android phone for sure.

"And does the autopilot not take weather into account?"

No, not in the slightest. Pilots adjust autopilot settings to account for weather. It is not automatic.

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Re:Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone by brettnak on Thursday April 11, 2013 @02:31PM (#5533790)
I believe the weather information comes from both an on board doppler radar and ACARS. ACARS is basically text messaging for airplanes over VHF.
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