Black Box

The "Black Box" Voice-plus-Data Recorder is the invention attributed to Dr David Warren of what was then known as the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, Australia. At the time of the invention, ARL was part of the Commonwealth of Australia's Department of Supply - ARL later became part of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), part of Australia's Department of Defence.

Dr Warren's work was first published in 1954 (Black Box Ref. 1 below). My involvement peaked around 1961 when the development of a pre-production prototype of airborne recording and ground station recovery equipment was undertaken prior to in-flight testing. This was the first time I met David Warren and found him then to be an inspirational scientist well capable of "thinking outside the box". Our friendship has endured through the years.

My involvement, together with that of other scientific staff (Lane Sear and Walter Boswell, both deceased) aimed to update the early model Flight Memory system pioneered by Dr Warren (who died in July 2010) to a pre-production standard, suitable for recording cockpit voice and instrument readings on a crash-survivable medium. Airborne and associated ground recovery instrumentation was developed for in-flight demonstration purposes. The pre-production prototype was installed in the Department of Civil Aviation Fokker Friendship aircraft, VH-CAV, and the maiden test flight took place on 23 March 1962 departing from Essendon airport (in Melbourne, Australia). Recording and recovery of cockpit voice and flight data was 100% successful. In anticipation of the coming mandatory requirement, the British firm of S. Davall & Son approached ARL for the production rights and their "Red Egg" crash recorder was developed from it, winning a large part of the British and overseas market at that time.

Dr Warren, together with the team involved in the pre-production prototype development, were recognized in the Lawrence Hargrave Award granted by the Australian Division of The Royal Aeronautical Society in February 2001 (almost 40 years after the successful flight demonstration occurred). The award was presented by The Hon John Anderson MP, who was the Australian Minister for Transport at the time.

Apart from the Lawrence Hargrave Award mentioned above, Dr Warren has received a number of prestigious awards. In November 2000, he was awarded the Millenial Hartnett Medal from the Royal Society (Victoria Chapter) for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce. In January 2002, he was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia for his "service to the aviation industry, particularly through the early conceptual work and prototype development of the black box flight data recorder".

My involvement in the Black Box development has been reported in my Publications 9, 10, 25 and 41. I still find it hard to comprehend that the work I did at about age 24 (my age at the time of the successful flight demonstration on the Fokker Friendship aircraft) is the item for which I have received most accolades.

Most of the Black Box hardware is held at the Scienceworks Museum, 2 Booker Street, Spotswood, Melbourne, Victoria 3015, Australia. The wire recorder is held at DSTO's Melbourne Laboratory, 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermans Bend, Victoria 3207, Australia.