Why do Aircrafts Have a Black Box?

Often, after an air disaster, we hear about the black box in the news. The black box does not play any part in making an aircraft fly but it serves an important function. It is basically an electronic device used by investigators to discover the cause of a crash and may be, prevent others.

The black box can be inserted or removed from an aircraft. In a passenger aircraft there are actually two black boxes. One contains the flight data-recorder and the other, the cockpit-voice recorder.

The flight data-recorder registers the aircraft’s speed, direction, altitude and other important information throughout the flight. The cockpit-voice recorder saves the crew’s words and the sounds in the cockpit. Older recorders used a loop of tape; today’s use tough solid-state memory chips, like the ones inside a phone. It keeps recording over itself, so investigators can listen to roughly the last 30 minutes to two hours before a crash.

Both the recorders are placed in the cockpit of the plane.

In order to protect the recorders, they are kept separately. These recorders are enclosed inside a crash-proof and fireproof metal shell. The interesting part is that although the flight recorder is called a ‘black box’ it is always painted bright yellow or orange!

What! A black box is actually yellow you ask? The answer is simple – it is easier to find a brightly coloured item in wreckage when everything around you is black, charred from the fire.

Then why call it a black box?

The term ‘black box’ is not just confined to an aircraft. Any device that is not essential for the functioning of a system is termed a black box.

So now, don’t get puzzled if the futuristic car of tomorrow has an orange or yellow box under the seat or in the dashboard!