Orange Colour "Black Box"

There is equipment in an aircraft which we call black box generally. It takes a big place in air crashes. The real technical name of this equipment is Flight Recorder. Two flight recorders can be seen in an aircraft. They are called FDR and CVR Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder respectively. FDR stores information regarding the procedure of the aircraft. CVR stores the recordings from the cockpit. These cockpit recordings contain the conversations between pilots, conversations between pilots and air craft controllers and sounds of the atmosphere. But in some aircrafts theses two recorders are combined and are used as one recorder.

The main role of this equipment is to find the data of the caused reason at an air crash. Moreover it collects data about the engines and other equipments. Basically it’s all about the safety of an aircraft. Once I have heard that some pilots are using a higher speed than the recommended speed to reach their destinations with the intension of having a better resting time. But it is something that is prohibited strictly. These things can be found through these recorders. These recorders are made of materials which can endure any dangerous situation. That means, higher temperature, pressure, cold, fire ect. Even though this equipment is called as black box, it’s not black in colour. It’s orange in colour, and it too endures the above threatens. And also due to this colour this box can be easily found from any place. The black box is placed at the tail of an aircraft as it faces the minimum destruction at an air crash. 

Balk box was invented in France in early 1940s. It is an invention based on the theory of photography.

Black box is made of stainless steel or titanium. It can be easily found after an air crash with the help of the signals it emits. That signal emits for more than 30 days and can be come out from a depth of 6000ft. Its recording capacity is 24 hours and the previous recording gets deleted automatically at the end of 24 hours time. Early times recordings were stored in magnetic tapes and now it is recorded in micro chips. In Sri Lanka we don’t have the facility to read these recordings, after an air crash. So we have to take it to India or to the manufacturer.