It was the first “black box” invented by an Australian aviation research scientist named David Warren, in 1956, after the crash of the world’s first civilian plane in 1953, and Warren’s participation in the investigation to find out the cause of the disaster. The plane suffered.
David came up with the idea of making two devices that are installed in airplanes, the first device that records sounds while the second device works to record the data of the plane’s devices, and they must be resistant to collision and heat so that the investigators can do that. Various information can be collected about aircraft flight conditions, especially in the case of an aircard and it was called Hayden and the two devices called the black box.
The black box consists of two main boxes :
The first device: the voice recorder box
This box is made of highly fireproof titanium, with a temperature of 1100 degrees Celsius, withstanding high pressure up to 3 thousand kilograms, and a total weight of no more than 10 kilograms. The function of this box is to record sounds in the cockpit through a group of microphones installed in different places in the plane, which number up to 4 microphones distributed in the following places:
One is mounted in the pilot and co-pilot’s headset, the other is in the cabin crew’s headphone, and the other is located near the center of the cockpit, all connected to a voice recorder.
How does the voice recorder work ?
All these microphones are connected to the device, so that the microphones pick up the sounds in the cockpit and send them to the voice recorder, where they collect directly and send to a unit linked to the device called the linked control unit, which amplifies the sound before it reaches the voice recorder; And when the amplified sound reaches the voice recorder, it converts the sound into signals and then saves it on magnetic tapes that are recorded for up to two hours, and to avoid stopping the recording when the maximum capacity is reached, the device automatically scans the old 30 minutes and replaces it with a new 30 minutes, thus Ensure that the latest events are recorded. On board the plane in the event of an air disaster, enabling investigators to obtain sufficient information about the flight.
The second device: the data logger box
The box of this device is 0. meters long and 0.13 meters wide, and it is made of strong titanium material, which ensures that it will not penetrate, vibration or be exposed to combustion, and the choice of this material because of the strength comes from its strong resistance to temperatures up to 1100 degrees Celsius, which is a very strong material It maintains the two devices in case the plane is exposed to its airspace, and it maintains the information recorded in it for investigation by investigators.
This square also records flight data in the same way as the first box of a voice recorder. This is done by means of wired sensors attached to different areas of the aircraft to ensure that the largest number of information is recorded. These devices send any changes in the flight data to the data logging box. This box consists of magnetic tapes that record more than 100 change factors in the plane that may change during the flight, and strong solid tapes are used in it, which can record hundreds to thousands of variable factor data, because it allows greater speed. Data flow thus making sure that it is all recorded. Small and big in plane.
Among the factors that the device works to record during the flight there are: the duration and timing of the plane’s flight, air pressure, airspeed, vertical acceleration, horizontal stability of the plane, and many others, which provides the various information needed for the plane.
Black box (flight recorder) design and installation:
The design of the black box is distinctive so that the information stored on it is not lost when the plane falls, crashes, explodes or ignites, because the materials used in its manufacture are solid and resistant to various harsh weather conditions, and the design method ensures that the information stored on it is used to find out the cause of the accident.
Materials used in the black box (flight recorder) :
Use a layer set that covers the black box as follows: Aluminum: The memory cards are covered with a thin layer of aluminum in the black box to ensure thermal insulation. Silica: The memory cards are also covered with silica, about 2.5 cm thick, which protects them from high temperatures. Steel or Titanium: After the previous layers of aluminum and silica are placed on the cards, the whole is covered with a stainless steel coated box with a layer of titanium, the thickness of the layer is up to 0.75. Approx cm.
How they find the black box ( flight recorder) ?
When the plane is exposed to an accident and falls somewhere, the black box is found by relying on advanced devices mounted on submarines, magnetic detector techniques, or sensor probes. The data extraction process may require weeks or several months, depending on the fund’s condition and the extent of the damage it was exposed to, in addition to the search period for the fund’s location.
