Flight Recorder - History

History

As with many successful devices, probably no single person could be credited with the invention of the flight recorder. One of the earliest and proven attempts was made by François Hussenot and Paul Beaudouin in 1939 at the Marignane flight test center, France; they were essentially photograph-based flight recorders since the record was made on a scrolling photographic film. The latent image was made by a thin ray of light deviated by a mirror tilted according to the magnitude of the data to record (altitude, speed, etc.). Since the inside of the recorder was pitch black, this may be the origin of the "black box" name, often used as a synonym for a flight recorder. In 1947, Hussenot founded the Société Française des Instruments de Mesure with Beaudouin and another associate, so as to market his invention, which was also known as the "hussenograph"; the SFIM went on becoming a successful equipment company and a major flight recorder supplier, and is today part of the Safran group.

The first modern flight recorder, called "Mata Hari", was created in 1942 by Finnish aviation engineer Veijo Hietala. This black high-tech mechanical box was able to record all important aviation details during test flights of World War II fighters that the Finnish army repaired or built in their main aviation factory in Tampere, Finland. The "Mata Hari" black box is displayed in the Vapriikki museum in Tampere, Finland.

In 1953, Australian engineer David Warren conceived a device that would record not only the instruments reading, but also the cockpit voices, when working with the Defence Science and Technology Organisations' Aeronautical Research Laboratory (Melbourne, Australia). He built the first prototype in 1958. It was not until after the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision that black boxes of any kind were installed on commercial airplanes. In 1965 black boxes were redesigned and moved to the rear of airplanes to improve the probability of successful data retrieval after a crash. To facilitate their being found after a crash, they are bright orange, as shown in the picture, but the inaccurate nickname remains.