Most likely, the creators of the popular TV show borrowed the idea of the name from a real black box — a flight recorder that should be on every aircraft. It is also called a flight data recorder, because the device records all the necessary flight information using a specific algorithm. These devices, which are resistant to the most extreme situations, are among the most important tools in the aviation industry.
In the event of an unusual situation, accident or catastrophe, information that can clarify what happened is extracted from the black box. In other words, aviation investigators will also unravel the reasons for what happened and answer: what's in the black box?
The idea for a device for storing flight data was authored by Australian scientist David Warren. When David was 9 years old, his father died in a plane crash on a plane from Tasmania to Melbourne. Some sources claim that it was this tragic event that triggered the development of the flight recorder.
But there is a version that is more similar to the truth. From 1952 to 1983, Warren served as Chief Scientist at the Aeronautics Research Laboratory of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization. In 1953, the world's first British jet passenger liner, De Havilland Comet, crashed. David Warren participated in the investigation of the tragedy as a chemist specializing in rocket and aviation fuel. While clarifying the circumstances of the disaster, the scientist visited an exhibition where he saw a pocket recorder. Then the inventor came up with the idea that recording the crew's conversations in an emergency could significantly help in such investigations.
It should be noted that the devices that became the progenitors of flight recorders began to be used in aviation around 1947. However, these instruments recorded only flight parameters and did not record the crew's conversations. Recording was usually done on disposable film, which was not very convenient. Warren suggested using magnetic tape in recorders that is suitable for repeated rewriting. This turned out to be such a good solution that metallized tape or special recording wire is still used today.
The introduction of sound recording played a significant role in the investigation of air crashes. At the same time, investigators were especially helped by listening to recorded extraneous sounds rather than conversations between pilots and crew members. Fuse clicks, unusual engine hum, and more have become important clues in the investigation of many aviation incidents.
David Warren called his invention the “ARL Flight Memory Unit”. The first prototype of the device was introduced in 1956. In 1960, the Australian government approved the mandatory installation of emergency recorders on all passenger aircraft. For several years, other countries have followed suit.
The term “black box” was first used by the British during World War II and referred to a secret development — radars, radio and electronic navigation aids on British aircraft. These devices were placed in black boxes protected from external influences.
According to another version, one of the journalists christened the device that way after he saw a charred, half-melted object being pulled out of the wreckage of a crashed and burnt plane. The concept appeared in one of the materials from the crash site, and from there it spread further.
Aviation experts prefer to use another term “electronic flight data recorder” instead of the term “black box”. In fact, the flight recorders are painted in fluorescent orange (also possible red or yellow). This allows them to be found more quickly at the crash site.
Moreover, a black box is not a box at all. The device has a spherical or cylindrical body.
The black box can consist of two separate devices or one containing:
1. Flight data recorder. This unit stores information about direction, altitude, fuel, speed, turbulence, cabin temperature and other important parameters. In total, it is possible to record about 100 different values.
2. Voice recorder in the cockpit. It records conversations between pilots and crew members, engine sound, alarm triggers and other sounds.
In addition, flight recorders can be operational and emergency. The first ones are designed to monitor the actions of the crew by specialists on the ground. For convenience, they are installed in the cockpit; the hulls are not particularly protected, so very often such devices are damaged in an accident. Emergency recorders are the same black boxes. They are the sources of information for identifying the causes of the plane crash.
Magnetic tape has been a key element of a traditional flight recorder for many decades - it records all flight parameters. Since the 1990s, some companies have begun to use more modern data storage tools in black boxes — solid-state drives (flash memory). However, modern drives also have several drawbacks, so tape recorders are still being produced, although not in as many as before. In particular, domestic aviation still uses classic black boxes on board such aircraft as the An-24, An-26, Su-25, Tu-95, Tu-134, Tu-154, etc.
St. Petersburg is home to one of the few enterprises that manufacture classical magnetic tape for black boxes, the St. Petersburg Precision Alloy Plant. The company has modern equipment that makes it possible to carry out a full technological cycle of tape manufacturing — from charge materials to a finished product with a thickness of several microns. The key element in the flight recorder is made of precision alloys, and a number of fairly stringent conditions and requirements must be met to manufacture the tape. It is the quality and safety of the storage medium that determines how successful the actions to investigate and prevent air crashes will be.
In 2014, after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (it disappeared from radar during a regular flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, there were 239 people on board), experts and civilians alike called for a system that could send flight information to the ground in real time. In the event of the MH370 crash, investigators would know exactly where to look for the missing plane.
Perhaps in the near future this method of transmission will replace the traditional black box. For example, Aero Mechanical Services has already developed and is using the Flight Stream system, which sends flight data to the ground via satellites. However, it has not yet been widely used for a number of reasons.
Another area of possible development of payload recorders is the introduction of video recording of what is happening outside and in the cabin. And while we generally decide the first method, the pilots themselves oppose recording inside, citing the right to confidentiality, which in this case will be violated.
So far, mankind has not come up with a better way to travel a long distance in a short time than to do it by plane. This means that flight recorders in one form or another will exist for a long time to come. We can only hope that these devices are extracted by specialists as rarely as possible for use for their intended purpose.
