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The Black Box
ARE “BLACK BOXES” REALLY PAINTED BLACK
By Airline Ratings
With the advent of jet airliners in the late 1950s, analyzing critical details of aircraft performance became paramount during crash investigations, and two new devices were added as standard equipment on airliners.
One was the “Flight Data Recorder” (FDR) which automatically
records hundreds of parameters of flight information, such as engine
performance, power settings, control surface inputs and movement, and all
changes in attitude, airspeed, and altitude.
The FDR provides investigators with a detailed “road map” of
every second of flight up to the moment the aircraft comes to a stop.
The second device is the “Cockpit Voice Recorder” (CVR) which
captures recent intervals of conversation between pilots onboard the airliner,
as well as Air Traffic Control personnel communicating with that aircraft.
Valuable information can also be revealed through careful
analysis of various sounds coming from inside the cockpit, such as warning
horns, or the sequence of specific switches being activated.
Although the FDR and CVR were originally referred to as “black
boxes,” today with rapid post-crash identification in mind, they are actually
painted a bright red-orange.
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