[wglb]

Well, for the ones that travel within sight of land, we don't have much of a problem. And that may be "most". But "most" flights don't end in disaster. It is the ones that spend long hours over the horizon that are of the most concern.

A significant number spend lots of time more than 200 miles from land. And "land" here means some land with a data link endpoint.

With respect to airplanes forming some sort of mesh network, consider the bandwidth requirements throughout this link.

[fnordfnordfnord]

>With respect to airplanes forming some sort of mesh network, consider the bandwidth requirements throughout this link.

Right, but all that is really necessary is groundspeed, altitude, and equipment number. That gets you enough information to find a crash / forced landing site quickly, and to know where to search for wreckage. So, even for those parts of the flight path that are "dark" It still may be potentially superior to low-bandwidth satellite links.