ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Black boxes – the importance of Black boxes in aviation

Updated on January 25, 2016
Recovering the Black box of a crashed flight in Brazil, 2006
Recovering the Black box of a crashed flight in Brazil, 2006 | Source

What is a Black box?

Lately we can hear a lot about a certain ‘Black box’ in the media, especially after the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the MH370 Malaysia Airlines on the 8th of March, 2014 and the terrible incident over Ukraine of the MH17 Malaysia Airlines on the 17th of July, 2014.

The Black box is a recorder equipment, which has to be carried compulsorily on each and every aircraft. In case of a catastrophe the contents of this box can be removed and examined, so the investigators might be able to completely hear and ‘relive’ the last few hours or minutes of the aircraft. This way they are able to find out the exact circumstances of the collision and the things leading up to it.

The inventor, Dr. Dave Warren with the prototype of the Black box
The inventor, Dr. Dave Warren with the prototype of the Black box | Source

Did you know?

Despite of its name, the Black box is orange. Originally it was designed to be black, but later the experts realised that it would be much easier to find it in extreme conditions, if its colour was much brighter and easily noticeable.

The significance of Black boxes

The first Black box was produced in 1957 by an Australian scientist, Dr. David Warren. He realised that some kind of recording equipment might be crucial in a plane crash investigation, when he was asked to reconstruct the circumstances of the crash of the world’s first passenger jet airliner, the Comet, in 1953.

The Black box itself consists of two parts: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

The cockpit voice recorder – despite of its name – is not located in the cockpit, but it is in the tail of the plane. This equipment not only records everything that the crew of the plane says, but monitors every sound that occurs within the cockpit area. So investigators are not only interested in any conversation between the pilots and the ground control, but they also have a keen ear for any sounds that are out of the ordinary (faulty engines, sudden warnings, any creaking, etc.). The most experienced investigators are even able to tell the exact speed and engine rpm just by listening to these sounds. This cockpit voice recorder records cockpit data on a two-hour loop, which means that only the last 2 hours of the communication is available, meanwhile older content is continuously overwritten by the newest information. Using these data, experts are able to determine the circumstances and the timing of different events, which is crucial in a plane crash investigation.

A 'Black' box in reality
A 'Black' box in reality | Source

On the other hand, the flight data recorder has an even bigger importance than the cockpit voice recorder, as it records all the main and essential operating functions of the plane like the time, the altitude, the direction, the speed, the air pressure within the plane, the fuel gauge, the movement of flaps on the wings, etc. With all these information the investigators are able to completely reconstruct the last hours of the airplane, including its exact movements and factors that might have led to its crash.

The Black box was designed so that it is able to withstand even the worst and most extreme conditions for a certain period of time. Its outer case is waterproof, withstands corrosion, can resist a fire of 1100°C for even 60 minutes (or a fire of 260°C for 10 hours) and it is still operative even in extreme weather conditions (-55°C to 70°C). The device can ‘survive’ a depth of 6100 metres in the ocean while still submitting a signal (the Underwater Locator Beacon /ULB/ - that is fitted onto the box – gets activated as soon as the recorder reaches the surface of the water). The device can record more than 24 hours of data.

Searching a Black box in the ocean
Searching a Black box in the ocean | Source

Problems with the Black boxes

The battery life of these Black boxes can lead to problems. Although batteries on certain aircrafts were updated to be able to transmit (ping) for 90 days (after the crash of the Air France 447 flight in 2009), most of the batteries in operation today (as of 2014) are still only able to transmit for only 30 days after the crash.

But even if the transmitter is operational and it is properly sending signals, it might be extremely hard to pick its ping up from a distance that is bigger than a mile. Also, the seabed can be very mountainous, therefore small sonar devices and unmanned submarines have to be used to recover it from water.

Additionally, in case a plane crashes into the ocean, one of its transmitters, the emergency locator transmitter (which transmits a distress signal on impact) will be useless, as these are unable to operate in water.

Recovering the wreckage of an aircraft and its Black box from the ocean in 2006
Recovering the wreckage of an aircraft and its Black box from the ocean in 2006 | Source

On the other hand, the recorded data on the equipment will remain intact, even if the battery is flat – but obviously, not being able to detect the signal of the transmitter will make it almost impossible to recover the Black box once the battery is dead (although magnetic detection is still possible, of course).

Another problem with Black boxes is their size. Despite the significance of these recorders, they are as big as two shoeboxes stuck together; therefore it is extremely hard to recover them once a plane crashes and submerges into the ocean.

Also, these boxes are made of aluminium, therefore they are very heavy compared to their size (10 kgs) – so a Black box weighs more than 20kgs. This means that in water the recorder sinks very quickly.

The future

Today’s technology tends to go in a direction that everything will be smaller and smaller. While this might not entirely be the case with Black boxes - as they are already small enough for a big aircraft -, they might become more compact in a sense that they will be able to record much more – some experts say even 500 hours of – data.

Additionally, since the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian MH370 aircraft the public raised many concerns with Black boxes. Most of these concerns were already mentioned above, in the ‘Problems with the Black boxes’ section, but to sum it up, experts agree that these recorders are outdated, as they were barely changed in the last 50 years. They should be able to record more than 2 hours of cockpit communication, to transmit pings for the recovery teams for more than 30 days – even 90 days seems insufficient for an item of this importance -, and they must have a stronger signal that can be picked up from further distances, not only from within a mile.

What about you?

Do you feel safe on an airplane?

See results

How are these black boxes made?

Share your ideas!

Please feel free to comment on this hub, your feedback is very much appreciated!

Or, if you feel that you can write fresh, new ideas about this or a similar topic, just join our community and start writing!

© Copyright 2014, Zsofia Koszegi-Nagy (zsobig)

© 2014 Sophie

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)