Black Box

News: Authorities have recovered one of two black boxes of the London-bound Air India flight that crashed in a crowded area near Meghaninagar in Ahmedabad.

About Black Box

• It is a small machine that records information about an aircraft during its flight.
• It is basically a flight recorder.
• This bright orange or yellow rectangular box (not of black colour) is crafted to withstand explosions, fire, water pressure, and high-speed crashes.
• Invented by: It was invented by Australian scientist David Ronald de Mey Warren in early 1950s.
• Black boxes in an aircraft: Every commercial aircraft carries two such recorders – the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR).
  • FDR: It logs critical technical parameters including altitude, speed, engine thrust, and flight path data.
  • CVR: It captures all cockpit audio – pilot conversations, radio transmissions, warning alarms, and ambient mechanical sounds.
• Inside a black box: A black box consists of four main parts which are-
  • an interface to facilitate recording and playback
  • a underwater locator beacon
  • a “crash survivable memory unit” to withstand a force equivalent to 3,400 times the force of gravity
  • a recording chip on a circuit board.
• Naming as ‘Black’ box
  • This equipment had sensors that would optically project around 10 parameters onto a photographic film.
  • This film ran continuously in a box that was constructed to prevent any light from entering it. Hence, it was called a “black box”.
• Surviving the crash
  • It is made of strong substances such as steel or titanium and is insulated from factors such as extreme heat and cold.
  • It is purposely placed towards the tail end of the aircraft, where the impact of a crash is usually the least.
  • To make black boxes discoverable in situations where they are underwater, they are equipped with a beacon that sends out ultrasound signals for 30 days.