Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide wireless black box communication systems and methods. According to some embodiments, a wireless black-box flight recorder network system can generally comprise an earth-station server and a plurality of aircraft based clients. The earth-station server can be configured to transmit and receive wireless data messages. The earth-station server can be coupled to or comprise a storage medium for storing data recorded about an aircraft. The plurality of aircraft based clients can each comprise a device to receive aircraft data. The clients can also each comprise a client controller configured to implement a client process. The client process of at least one of the aircraft based client can select a transmission path to the earth-station server that is an indirect link to the earth-station server through at least one of the other aircraft based clients.