42 karma · joined January 30, 2013
I worked on the 787 and a derivative of the 747. They use protocols defined by ARINC (google it) that are only used in the airplane industry. Stuff like telnet need not apply.
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.
I am not making this up.
On the 747-400 I was on a group whose computer got input from all the 70+ computers on the airplane. It was all wired.
On the 787 I worked on a database during the development of the airplane that tracked all the information that flowed between computers. Nothing came to any computer that controlled the airplane that was not by wire or fiber optics.
I also dealt with ACARS. It is a read-only system on the airplane. It gets information from other computers and transmits it via satellite to the ground.
I'm not looking right now but I check craigslist from time to time and there are more iOS jobs now than 12-18 months ago when I was looking.
I also worked on the 787. The difference between the 787 and every previous Boeing plane was almost everything. The schedule from project launch to first delivery was about 4 years. We were two years late.
Moral: don't bite off more than you can chew.