Everything about The Flight Data Recorder totally explained
The
flight data recorder (
FDR) or
Black Box is a
flight recorder used to record specific
aircraft performance parameters. A separate device is the
cockpit voice recorder (CVR), although some versions (including the original) combine both in one unit. Popularly, though almost always falsely, known as the
black box used for
aircraft mishap analysis, the FDR is also used to study
air safety issues,
material degradation, and
jet engine performance. These
ICAO regulated "black box" devices are often used as an aid in investigating aircraft mishaps, and its recovery is second only in importance to the recovery of survivors and victims' bodies. The device's shroud is usually painted
bright orange and generally located in the tail section of the aircraft.
History
The first
prototype FDR was produced in 1956 by Dr.
David Warren of the then Aeronautical Research Laboratories of
Melbourne,
Australia. In 1953 and 1954, a series of fatal accidents involving the
De Havilland DH106 Comet prompted the grounding of the entire fleet pending an investigation. Dr. Warren, a
chemist specializing in aircraft fuels, was involved in a professional committee discussing the possible causes. Since there had been neither
witnesses nor survivors, Dr. Warren conceived of a crash-survivable method to record the
flight crew's conversation (and other pre-crash data), reasoning they'd greatly assist in determining a cause and enabling the prevention of future, avoidable accidents of the same type.
Despite his 1954 report entitled "A Device for Assisting Investigation into Aircraft Accidents" and a 1957
prototype FDR called "The ARL Flight Memory Unit",
aviation authorities from around the world were largely uninterested. This changed in 1958 when Sir Robert Hardingham, the
Secretary of the UK Air Registration Board, visited the ARL and was introduced to Warren.
The
Aeronautical Research Laboratory allocated Dr. Warren an engineering team to develop the prototype to airborne stage. The team, consisting of electronics engineers
Lane Sear,
Wally Boswell and
Ken Fraser developed a working design incorporating a fire and shockproof case, a reliable system for encoding and recording aircraft instrument readings and voice on one wire, and a ground-based decoding device.
The ARL system became the "Red Egg", the world's first commercial FDR, made by the
British firm of S. Davall & Son. The "Red Egg" got its name from its shape and bright red
color.
The term "Black Box" came from a meeting about the "Red Egg", when afterwards a
journalist told Dr. Warren,
"This is a wonderful black box." The unit itself was based on an
EMI Minifon
wire recorder fitted into a
perspex box firmly screwed together.
Design
The design of today's FDR is governed by the internationally recognised standards and recommended practices relating to flight recorders which are contained in
ICAO Annex 6 which makes reference to industry crashworthiness and fire protection specifications such as those to be found in the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment documents EUROCAE ED55, ED56A and ED112 (Minimum Operational Performance Specification for Crash Protected Airborne Recorder Systems). In the United States, the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates all aspects of U.S. aviation, and cites
design requirements in their Technical Standard Order, based on the EUROCAE documents (as do the aviation authorities of many other countries).
Currently, EUROCAE specifies that a recorder must be able to withstand an acceleration of 3400
g (33 km/s²) for 6.5
milliseconds. This is roughly equivalent to an
impact velocity of 270
knots and a
deceleration or crushing distance of 450
cm. Additionally, there are
requirements for penetration resistance,
static crush, high and low temperature
fires, deep sea
pressure,
sea water immersion, and
fluid immersion.
Modern day FDRs are typically plugged into the aircraft's
fly-by-wire main
data bus. They record significant
flight parameters, including the control and
actuator positions, engine information and time of day. There are 88 parameters required as a minimum under current U.S. federal regulations (only 29 were required until
2002), but some systems monitor many more
variables. Generally each parameter is recorded a few times per
second, though some units store "bursts" of data at a much higher
frequency if the data begins to change quickly. Most FDRs record 25 hours worth of data in a continuous loop.
This has also given rise to flight data monitoring programs, whereby flights are analyzed for optimum fuel consumption and dangerous flight crew habits. The data from the FDR is transferred, in situ, to a solid state recording device and then periodically analyzed with some of the same technology used for accident investigations.
FDRs are usually located in the rear of the aircraft, typically in the tail. In this position, the entire front of the
aircraft acts as a "crush zone" to reduce the shock that reaches the recorder. Also, modern FDRs are typically double wrapped, in strong
corrosion-resistant
stainless steel or
titanium, with high-temperature
insulation inside.
Future devices
Since the recorders can sometimes be crushed into unreadable pieces, or even never located in deep water, some modern units are self-ejecting (taking advantage of
kinetic energy at impact to separate themselves from the aircraft) and also equipped with
radio and
sonar beacons (see
emergency locator transmitter) to aid in their location.
Alternatively other aircraft such as the
Space Shuttle Orbiter don't possess an FDR, but instead use down-links to transfer such data. This kind of system could potentially see wider use in aviation in modified form.
On
19 July 2005, the
Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement Act of 2005 was introduced and referred to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the
U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would require installation of a second cockpit voice recorder,
digital flight data recorder system and emergency locator transmitter that utilizes combination deployable recorder technology in each commercial passenger aircraft, currently required to carry each of those recorders. The deployable recorder system would be ejected from the rear of the aircraft at the moment of an accident. The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Aviation and hasn't progressed since. One problem for the military is that these commercial devices offer no protection of the data that has been recorded thus have the potential for exposing military secrets if the device is captured by non-friendly forces and exploited.
Flight Data Recorders for Radio Controlled Models
Reductions in the cost and size of electronic components, coupled with the increased sophistication and popularity of radio controlled vehicles, have led to the development of miniature, low cost RC Flight Data Recorders which measure many of the same parameters logged by full sized Recorders.
An example of one of these recorders (pictured) measures altitude, airspeed, motor RPM, temperatures, servo positions, and several other parameters, and weighs less than 30 grams (1 ounce).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Flight Data Recorder'.
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