Black Box Question

[Superfueler]

I was watching a show on TWA 800, and it showed them carrying the black boxes in coolers filled with water. Any idea why they do that?

 

[flx757]

This is kind of a simplistic answer, but the way I understand it is in the case of TWA 800, the CVR and FDR were recovered from the water (obviously) thus the tapes had been exposed to water. To preserve the condition of the tapes, they had to be kept wet. Allowing them to dry on their own would have damaged them and made recovering the data difficult. The lab where the tapes are analyzed uses a special process to dry the tapes to help preserve the data.

 

[310]

I'm not sure-- but I think it has to do with the salts and minerals drying and destroying the stored info. I think they will wash them in distilled water and then let dry.

 

[Seair]

Hi superfueler,

Black boxes are to be kept in the same environment which they are being retrieved as in this case would be from a wet environment. This is to prevent further damage to the contents.

Recovery teams attempt to keep the recorders in the same condition as found until delivered to NTSB lab. The lab has both equipment and knowledge on how to access the contents with minimum loss of data no matter what the condition the boxes were delivered in.

For the same reason if you drop your camera overboard, you should not take it out of the salt water, dry it off then take it in to be fixed.

Once the dried off camera gets exposed to the air, outside of the saline environment, it will corrode at an accelerated rate.

Keeping the data recorders in the water in which they were found prevents them from exposure to air which will damage them very quickly.


Hope this helps

(s) Seair

 

[PilotoHalcon]

I just felt compelled to ask if you all knew that the 'black" boxes are in reality a bright orange? Wonder why they call them black boxes then. Maybe the same person put the name to jumbo shrimp or military intel.

 

[Superfueler]

...and if they are made to survive a crash, why not make the whole plane out of that material?

 

[310]

because a 172 would weight 10000 lbs to make it that strong- with no room for anything much inside

 

[dmspilot00]

They used to be black.

They were changed to orange so that they would be easier to see. But, actually, I learned in a physics class that the easiest color to see by humans is yellow or greenish yellow.

 

[PilotoHalcon]

LOL superfueler. And 310, I asked you a million times to quit exaggerating.
j

 

[310]

uh......duh......say again LOL means what?


what would a crash damage resistent plane weigh?

 

[Seair]

LOL = laugh out loud

Yea, black boxes are usually painted bright orange/red. A distinct colour, along with the strips of reflective tape attached to the recorders' exteriors. This help investigators locate the black boxes following an accident. It is especially useful when it lands in water.

People call them black boxes as some believe that they are painted black in the past, others believe that they are black is due to the charring that occurs in the post-accident fires.

I learned in a physics class that the easiest color to see by humans is yellow or greenish yellow.

Really? I thought that was the dog's vision?
By the way, i'm not sure if it applies to your country but from where i'm from, they use to test your eye for astig with red and green colour. So shouldn't red and green be the one? Or green being the brighter one and red being the softer one?

Thanks

(s)Seair

 

[PilotoHalcon]

Actually (and a little off the subject) the colors black and yellow will give you the most contrast.
j

 

[Superfueler]

Why not paint it like a $100 bill and send some women out to find them?

oops, did I say that?

 

[PilotoHalcon]

That was a politically incorrect statement fueler.... I love it.
j

 

[Seair]

Why not paint it like a $100 bill and send some women out to find them?

If the women was me, i will bet that you get nothing out of me
Seriously, there are more guys that are money minded then women than you have expected. It is just that they do not spend them in shopping where it is wide open to public eyes.
Although i classify myself as not one of these women mention above, i get "disgusted" at their spending habits Sorry ladies but i do not comment nor make such statements out of it. Just ignor it and get on with life
Look at those aviation enthu boys, willing to spend much on models and stuff... They could even buy the whole airport if they could afford it! But, this is only to the aviation world. Others who are not in the aviation might not notice it or even have the slightest clue about aviation enthu's world. Look at those who persue their interest in cameras? Tonnes of money spent on upgrading their cameras', different range of lenses for different contet shots. If you want to argue the point that you are buying useful stuff and is towards hobbies, then why can't women say that they too are buying useful stuff (don't tell me you do not wear clothes) and shopping is their hobby?

P.S: I hate shopping but why can't everyone get on with their life as their life, then commenting on others as spending habits and consider themselves with better spending habits when it's more or less the same? So what if i'm different from the ladies? Doesn't like shopping of their kind. They too shouldn't comment and so applies to you!

 

[dmspilot00]

People call them black boxes as some believe that they are painted black in the past, others believe that they are black is due to the charring that occurs in the post-accident fires.


Really? I thought that was the dog's vision?
By the way, i'm not sure if it applies to your country but from where i'm from, they use to test your eye for astig with red and green colour. So shouldn't red and green be the one? Or green being the brighter one and red being the softer one?

They really were black...according to a factual documentary I saw on black boxes.

Dogs are colorblind, aren't they? I don't think the astigmatism test has anything to do with it.

If you think about it, the colors go Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet. Red is at the low end of the spectrum, Violet is on the high end, and Yellow and Green are in the middle. So it makes sense that we most easily see the colors that are in the middle of the spectrum.

 

[Seair]

Yea, red/green colour blind
Dogs are dichromatic and can distinguish only two colours: blue and yellow. They are unable to recognize green, orange or red.
Most of their colour spectrum are yellow.

Cheers

(s)Seair

 

[reaperman]

Black because...

Henry Ford said so.

If you look in the avionics bay of an airliner, I think you'll see nearly all the boxes are black. It's easy; It's cheap; It dries fast (the Ford reason).

But there might be another reason for calling the recorders "black boxes". "Black Box" is a venerable old term used by engineers and scientists to describe a device that you don't know and/or don't care how its innards look and work. All you care about is that it performs its function.