March 17, 1953: The Black Box Is Born [Wired]

From Wired: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/03/0317warren-invents-airplane-black-box/  

“1953: After several high-profile crashes of de Havilland Comet airliners go unsolved, Australian researcher David Warren invents a device to record cockpit noise and instruments during flight.

During the first half of aviation’s history, crashes rarely came with any answers. Even if an eyewitness saw an airplane crash, little was known of the cause or what pilots might have been aware of before the crash.

In the early 1950s, the world’s first jet-powered airliner, the de Havilland Comet, crashed several times. Warren, a researcher at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne, Australia, believed if the pilot’s voices could be recorded, as well as instrument readings, the information could help determine the cause of a crash — and help prevent them. His device was called a “Flight Memory Unit.”

By 1957, the first prototypes of the device were produced. Early versions could record up to four hours of voice and instrument data on a steel foil. Warren believed the device would be popular and help solve the mysteries behind aviation crashes, but the device was initially rejected by the Australian aviation community for privacy issues.

Eventually, British officials accepted the idea of a flight data recorder and Warren began producing FDRs in crash- and fire-proof containers and selling them to airlines around the world. After a 1960 crash in Queensland, where the cause could not be determined, the Australian government required all commercial airplanes carry a recorder. The country became the first to require the use of the devices.

Early recorders logged basic flight conditions such as heading, altitude, airspeed, vertical accelerations and time. Today’s FDRs can record many more parameters including throttle and flight-control positions. Analyzing so many parameters allows investigators to recreate most of the pilot-controlled activity in the moments leading up to a crash. In recent years, digital reproductions of flights using FDR data have been valuable in recreating accidents and analyzing both the problems leading to the crash and the pilots’ response.

Modern FDRs, aka “black boxes,” are actually bright orange. They must withstand several tests, including fire and piercing, and the ability to withstand the pressure of being submerged to 20,000 feet below the ocean. Perhaps most impressive is their ability to withstand a 3,400-g crash-impact test. To aid in recovery, a locator-beacon signal is emitted for up to 30 days.

While early designs recorded the information onto a steel foil, modern FDRs use solid-state memory that can be downloaded almost instantly. This data can also be checked during routine maintenance inspections to monitor the performance of aircraft.

Future improvements to flight recorders include the possibility of transmitting flight data in real time to ground stations, which would eliminate the need to physically find the flight data recorder. Interest in this kind of in-flight transmission of data gained momentum after Air France flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic in 2009 and a flight data recorder could not be found.

Source: Various

Photo: Officials transfer the TWA Flight 800 flight data recorder from saltwater into freshwater on July 25, 1996, at the Coast Guard station in East Moriches, New York.
Associated Press/US Coast Guard”

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