An example of a FDR (Flight Data Recorder). (English translation: FLIGHT RECORDER DO NOT OPEN)

The flight data recorder (FDR) 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 victims’ bodies. The device's shroud is usually painted bright orange and generally located in the tail section of the aircraft. The current FAA TSO is C124b [1] titled Flight Data Recorder Systems. This revision came into effect in April 2007. The image was obtained from the United States NTSB government website at { http://www. ... In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ... “Flying Machine” redirects here. ... Cockpit Voice Recorder (Exhibit in Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany). ... The term Black Box is a placeholder name used casually, often by journalists, to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight data recorder, flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder in aircraft, the event recorder in railway diesel locomotives, the Event Data Recorder in... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Air safety is a broad term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through appropriate regulation, as well as through education and training. ... In materials science, fatigue is the progressive, localised, and permanent structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic or fluctuating strains at nominal stresses that have maximum values less than (often much less than) the static yield strength of the material. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ... The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ... Safety orange, also known as blaze orange, vivid orange or International orange, is a color used to set things apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast to the blue color of the sky. ... FAA may refer to: Federal Aviation Administration in the United States Fleet Air Arm in the UK Royal Navy Fuerza Aérea Argentina in Argentina This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A Technical Standard Order (TSO) is a minimum performance standard issued by the United States Federal Aviation Administration for specified materials, parts, processes, and appliances used on civil aircraft. ...

History

The first prototype FDR was produced in 1957 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 would greatly assist in determining a cause and enabling the prevention of future, avoidable accidents of the same type. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with prototyping. ... David L. Warren is currently a president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). ... This article is about the Australian city; the name may also refer to City of Melbourne or Melbourne city centre. ... This article is about the de Havilland Comet jet airliner. ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... This article is about witnesses in law courts. ... Aircrew members may include pilots, flight attendants, flight engineers, navigators, Taccos, signallers, observers, (air) gunners, weapons specialists, loadmasters and various electronics system operators depending on the age during which the aircraft operated and the type of operations. ...

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. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with prototyping. ... Look up aviation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Secretary (disambiguation). ...

1962 ARL encoder/recorder units by Lane Sear and Wally Boswell.

1962 ARL decoder unit by Ken Fraser.

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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Ken Fraser (born 17 February 1940) is a former Australian rules footballer in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL). ...

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. For other uses, see Journalist (disambiguation). ... The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is a British music company comprising of the major record company EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Kensington in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York. ... Wire recording is a type of analogue audio storage in which the recording is made onto thin steel or stainless steel wire. ... Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or poly (methyl 2-methylpropenoate) is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. ...

Design

The design of today's FDR is largely governed by the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment^[1] in its EUROCAE ED-112 (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,^[2] based on the European ED-112 (as do the aviation authorities of many other countries). “FAA” redirects here. ... All Saints Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. ... This article is about engineering. ...

Brazilian Air Force personnel recover the Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 "black box" in the Amazon Rainforest.

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2668x1772, 1212 KB) from http://www. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2668x1772, 1212 KB) from http://www. ... The Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB) is the aerial warfare branch of the Brazilian armed forces and one of the three national uniformed services. ... Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-800 SFP, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil to Rio de Janeiro, which collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet on September 29, 2006 over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. ... Map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions as delineated by the WWF. Yellow line encloses the Amazon rainforest. ... The term g force or gee force refers to the symbol g, the force of acceleration due to gravity at the earths surface. ... One millisecond is one-thousandth of a second. ... IMPACT [1] The mission of IMPACT is to inform and connect emerging leaders through economic empowerment, civic engagement, and political involvement. ... In physics, velocity is defined as the rate of change of displacement or the rate of displacement. ... A knot is a unit of speed abbreviated kt or kn. ... Acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity, and at any point on a v-t graph, it is given by the gradient of the tangent to that point In physics, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the rate of change (or time derivative) of velocity. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This article is about engineering. ... Statics is the branch of physics concerned with physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at rest under the action of external forces of equilibrium. ... For other uses, see Fire (disambiguation). ... This article is about pressure in the physical sciences. ... Sea water is water from a sea or ocean. ... A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress regardless of the magnitude of the applied stress. ...

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 faster frequency if the data begins to change quickly. Most FDRs record 25 hours worth of data in a continuous loop. A flight control system consists of the flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkage, and necessary operating mechanisms to control aircraft in flight The basic fundamentals of aircraft controls has been explained in aeronautics. ... In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers. ... A hummingbird Female Mallard Duck in midflight A dragonfly in flight Flight is the process by which an object achieves sustained movement either through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earths atmosphere, in the case of spaceflight. ... An actuator is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... In computer science and mathematics, a variable (IPA pronunciation: ) (sometimes called a pronumeral) is a symbolic representation denoting a quantity or expression. ... Look up second in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... FreQuency is a music video game developed by Harmonix and published by SCEI. It was released in November 2001. ...

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. “Flying Machine” redirects here. ... For the hazard, see corrosive. ... The 630 foot high, stainless-clad (type 304L) Gateway Arch defines St. ... General Name, symbol, number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Image:Ti, 22. ... Thermal insulation on the Huygens probe The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer. ...

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. The kinetic energy of an object is the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion. ... This article is about underwater sound propagation. ... Emergency position-indicating rescue beacons (EPIRB), also called Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) or Personal Locator Beacon, are small radio transmitters that some satellites and search and rescue aircraft can use to locate people, boats and aircraft needing rescue. ...

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 has not progressed since.^[3][4] 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. is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has jurisdiction over: Aviation Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Railroads Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Highways, Transit, and Pipelines Water Resources and Environment A subcommittee represents each area of jurisdiction. ... The House of Representatives is the larger of two houses that make up the U.S. Congress, the other being the United States Senate. ... A digital system is one that uses discrete values (often electrical voltages), especially those representable as binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (ie, as in an analog system). ...

See also

• Cockpit voice recorder (CVR)
• Air Safety
• Black box (transportation)
• Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)

Cockpit Voice Recorder (Exhibit in Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany). ... Cockpit Voice Recorder (Exhibit in Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany). ... Air safety is a broad term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through appropriate regulation, as well as through education and training. ... The term Black Box is a placeholder name used casually, often by journalists, to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight data recorder, flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder in aircraft, the event recorder in railway diesel locomotives, the Event Data Recorder in... Emergency position-indicating rescue beacons, also called Emergency position-indicating radio beacons or EPIRBs, are small radio transmitters that some satellites and search and rescue aircraft can use locate people or boats needing rescue. ... Emergency position-indicating rescue beacons (EPIRB) are small radio transmitters that some satellites and search and rescue aircraft can use locate people or boats needing rescue. ...

References

1. ^ European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment
2. ^ TSO-C124a FAA Regs.
3. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.3336.IH:
4. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.03336:

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Flight data recorder

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General information

• U.S. Patent 3,075,192  — United States Patent Office link to James J. Ryan's Patent "Coding Aparatus for Flight Recorders and the Like"
• [2] — University of Minnesota article on the legacy of James "Crash" Ryan
• Black Box Flight Recorder — Australian Department of Defence article on the flight recorder
• Dave Warren - Inventor of the black box flight recorder — Australian Department of Defence article on the flight recorder's inventor
• How Black Boxes Work — Detailed seven page article from HowStuffWorks
• IRIG 106 Chapter 10 — Flight data recorder digital recorder standard

HowStuffWorks is a website created by Marshall Brain but now owned by the Convex Group. ...

Dr David Warren (interview)

• ABC TV (Australia) Dr David Warren interview transcript 2003
• ABC TV (Australia) Dr David Warren interview transcript 2002

This article contains material that originally came from an NTSB website. According to their site usage guidelines, "Text appearing on NTSB Web pages, in reports, recommendation, and public dockets, unless otherwise noted, was prepared by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties and, therefore, is not subject to copyright." For more information, please review NTSB's use policies. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ...