Self-restoring on-board information system

1. An on-board information system for an aircraft, comprising:

a central processing unit;

a first non-rewritable memory containing a boot program;

a volatile memory; and

a second non-rewritable memory containing an operating system of the on-board information system and a set of executable files,

wherein, after maintenance operations comprising data transfers between a maintenance terminal and said on-board information system have been completed,

said on-board information system is initialized by being shut down and powered up again, and

said boot program is configured after said powering up to load, in a secure encryption mode, and verify the integrity of the operating system and at least a portion of the executable files into the volatile memory.

2. The on-board information system according to claim 1 , wherein said second non-rewritable memory also contains all of the permanent data files required for executing said executable files via said central processing unit.

3. The on-board information system according to claim 2 , wherein the boot program is configured to load said permanent data files into the volatile memory when said on-board system is initialized.

4. The on-board information system according to claim 1 , wherein the first non-rewritable memory is a ROM memory.

5. The on-board system according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the second non-rewritable memory is a locked read-only hard disk, a locked read-only flash memory, a CD-ROM or a DVD.

6. A network system including a plurality of on-board information systems for an aircraft, each being run by a software program in order to perform a predetermined function and including a processing unit, a first non-rewritable memory containing a boot program, as well as a volatile memory, said network system comprising:

a plurality of file servers, each server including a non-rewritable mass memory; and

an on-board network to which said on-board information systems and said file servers are connected,

wherein for at least one of said on-board information systems, after maintenance operations comprising data transfers between a maintenance terminal and said at least one on-board information system have been completed,

said at least one on-board information system is initialized by being shut down and powered up again, and

said boot program is configured after said powering up to download in a secure encryption mode, from at least one of said servers, an operating system of the on-board information system and an executable file or files, and verify the integrity of the operating system and said executable file or files, said operating system being stored in a second non-rewritable memory, and to load said operating system and said executable file or files into said volatile memory.

7. The network system according to claim 6 , wherein the network system includes at least two file servers, the respective mass memories of which contain identical files.

8. The network system according to one of the claims 6 to 7 , wherein files are downloaded from said servers according to a secure file transfer protocol.

9. An aircraft comprising an on-board information system according to claim 1 .