Why Do They Insist on Calling it the Black Box ?

a reply to: whyamIhere


For the most hilarious Rant EVEEEERRRR . You did mean it that way ,right ? oops

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: stormcell
It's a term from computing. When you are designing some bit of code or hardware, you often have a specification based only on a series of inputs, and a series of outputs. The actual purpose could be anything, an automatic ignition controller, real-time language translation, a mathematical function for encryption. But automagically, that code or hardware module does that particular task just like a magicians trick box turns eggs into chickens. Data goes in, answers come out. So they call it a "black box". That gets extended to flight recorders which take in all the inputs from the aircraft sensors, and save a recording in storage.

Initial flight recorders did not use magnetic tape or digital memory, because it was too prone to external disruption.

Recorders, therefore, used a beam of light, hitting a vibrating mirror to write the oscillations on to a rotating drum driven by a clock like mechanism with photographic film wrapped around it.

This recorded the sound optically, was rugged, mechanically and electronically simple (fewer points of failure), was easily reloaded and cheap.

Of course, the film handling and optical sealing was important and so the boxes were usually opened only in a darkroom.

That's the most intelligent response I've ever read on a rant thread.

Thanks

a reply to: Swills

Awesome a Trump supporter

It was originally black. There is nothing more. And for the record they are called Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders. Just got an A in my Aviation Accident Investigation course. Woot.

Jax

Because it doesn't work most of the time ?

The black box as they call it is the flight data recorder, it shows everything the aircraft was doing every minute of the flight. The position of flight controls , all the electrical inputs and outputs to and from the databuses , every calculation the computers were doing etc.

Now, the CVR, the cockpit voice recorder is a seperate box, I suppose you could say there are two black boxes on board, but this is the least important one. It is still important but what you really want out of the two boxes if you had a choice is the FDR.

originally posted by: mazzroth
Because it doesn't work most of the time ?

They work about 30 days.

Then they just lay around...