Friday, September 25, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Aeroplane-Helicopter - Flight data recorder - Black Box
The flight data recorder (FDR) (also ADR, for Accident Data Recorder) is a device
Flight recorder
A flight recorder is a recorder placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, they are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft accident....
used to record specific aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
performance parameters. A companion device is the cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A Cockpit Voice Recorder , or "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flightdeck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents....
(CVR), which records conversation in the cockpit
Cockpit
A cockpit is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin....
, radio communications between the cockpit crew and others (including conversation with air traffic control personnel
Air traffic controller
Air traffic controllers are people who operate the air traffic control system to expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of Aircraft and help prevent mid-air collisions....
), as well as ambient sounds.
Flight recorder
A flight recorder is a recorder placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, they are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft accident....
used to record specific aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
performance parameters. A companion device is the cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A Cockpit Voice Recorder , or "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flightdeck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents....
(CVR), which records conversation in the cockpit
Cockpit
A cockpit is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin....
, radio communications between the cockpit crew and others (including conversation with air traffic control personnel
Air traffic controller
Air traffic controllers are people who operate the air traffic control system to expedite and maintain a safe and orderly flow of Aircraft and help prevent mid-air collisions....
), as well as ambient sounds. In some cases, both functions have been combined into a single unit, as was the case with the original design.
Popularly referred to as a "black box
Black Box (transportation)
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 recorders in aircraft, the event recorder in railway locomotives, the event data recorder in automobiles and other recording devices in various vehicles....
," the data recorded by the FDR is used for accident investigation
Investigation
Investigation is the process of inquiring into a matter through research, follow-up, study, or formal procedure of discovery.Investigation may refer to:...
, as well as for analyzing air safety
Air safety
Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of Aviation accidents and incidents, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training....
issues, material degradation
Fatigue (material)
In materials science, 'fatigue' is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading....
and engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet of fluid to generate thrust in accordance with Isaac Newton Newton's laws of motion....
performance. Due to their importance in investigating accidents, these ICAO
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , an agency of the United Nations, codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international scheduled air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth....
-regulated devices are carefully engineered and stoutly constructed to withstand the force of a high speed impact and the heat of an intense fire. Contrary to the "black box" reference, the exterior of the FDR is coated with heat-resistant bright orange
Safety orange
Safety orange is a hue. Its deeper, more saturated shade is known as international orange. Safety orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in color theory to the Azure color of the sky ....
paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquifiable, or mastic composition which after application to a Substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film....
for high visibility in wreckage, and the unit is usually mounted in the aircraft's empennage
Empennage
Empennage is an aviation term used to describe the tail portion of an aircraft. The empennage gives stability to the aircraft and controls the flight dynamics: pitch and yaw....
(tail section), where it is more likely to survive a severe crash. Following an accident, recovery of the "black boxes" is second in importance only to the rescue of survivors and recovery of human remains.
History
The first prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an original type, form, or instance of something serving as a typical example, basis, or standard for other things of the same category....
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
De Havilland Comet
The de Havilland Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland, it first flew in 1949 and was considered a landmark
prompted the grounding of the entire fleet pending an investigation. Dr. Warren, a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape....
specializing in aircraft fuels, was involved in a professional committee discussing the possible causes. Since there had been neither witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event....
es 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.
Despite his 1954 report entitled "A Device for Assisting Investigation into Aircraft Accidents" and a 1957 prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an original type, form, or instance of something serving as a typical example, basis, or standard for other things of the same category....
FDR called "The ARL Flight Memory Unit", aviation
Aviation
File:Norwegian military
authorities from around the world were largely uninterested. This changed in 1958 when Sir Robert Hardingham, the Secretary
Secretary
A secretary is either an administrative assistant in administration , or a certain type of mid- or high-level governmental position, such as a Secretary of State....
of the UK Air Registration Board, visited the ARL and was introduced to
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
Ken Fraser
Ken Fraser is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League .Ken Fraser was an outstanding centre half-forward, Essendon Football Club captain, premiership captain and player, and Victorian representative....
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
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the
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
Journalist
A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that aren't biased....
told Dr. Warren, "This is a wonderful black box." The unit itself was based on an EMI
EMI
The EMI Group is a
Minifon wire recorder (originally a 1950's espionage gadget from the west-German manufacterer Protona Monske) fitted into a perspex
Acrylic glass
Poly poly is a thermoplastic and transparency plastic. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. It is sold by the trade names Plexiglas, Vitroflex, Limacryl, 'R-Cast, 'Per-Clax, 'Perspex, 'Plazcryl, 'Acrylex, 'Acrylite, 'Acrylplast, 'Altuglas, 'Polycast...
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
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation with authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S....
(FAA) regulates all aspects of U.S. aviation, and cites design
Design
Design is used both as a noun and a verb. The term is often tied to the various applied arts and engineering . As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and planning for a product, structure, system, or component with intention....
requirement
Requirement
In engineering, a requirement is a singular documented need of what a particular product or service should be or do. It is most commonly used in a formal sense in systems engineering or software engineering....
s 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
G-force
The g-force of an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. The unit of measure used is informally but commonly known as the "gee" , symbolized as g . An acceleration of 1 g is generally considered as equal to standard gravity , which is defined as precisely metre per second square...
(33 km/s²) for 6.5 milliseconds. This is roughly equivalent to an impact
Impact
In computing:* IMPACT , a computer graphics architecture for Silicon Graphics computer workstations* Impact Finite Element Program, an open source finite element program...
velocity
Velocity
In physics, velocity is defined as the Derivative of Position vector. It is a vector physical quantity; both speed and direction are required to define it....
of 270 knots
Knot (speed)
The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour. Its kn abbreviation is preferred by American and Canadian maritime authorities, and by the
and a deceleration or crushing distance of 450 cm. Additionally, there are requirement
Requirement
In engineering, a requirement is a singular documented need of what a particular product or service should be or do. It is most commonly used in a formal sense in systems engineering or software engineering....
s for penetration resistance, static
Statics
Statics is the branch of mechanics concerned with the analysis of loads on 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 a constant velocity....
crush, high and low temperature fire
Fire
Fire is the oxidation of a combustion material releasing heat, light, and various Chemical reaction products such as carbon dioxide and water....
s, deep sea pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied to an object in a direction surface normal to the surface. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure....
, sea water immersion, and fluid
Fluid
A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. All liquids and all gases are fluids. Fluids are a subset of the Phase and include liquids, gas, Plasma physics and, to some extent, plasticity ....
immersion.
Modern day FDRs receive inputs via specific data frames from the FDAU units. They record significant flight
Flight
Flight is the process by which an object moves either through the air, or movement beyond earth's atmosphere , by aerodynamically generating Lift , propulsion or Lighter than air using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
parameters, including the control and actuator
Actuator
An actuator is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system....
positions, engine information and time of day. There are 88 parameters required as a minimum under current
Variable
A variable is a symbol that stands for a value that may vary; the term usually occurs in opposition to constant, which is a symbol for a non-varying value, i.e....
s. Generally each parameter is recorded a few times per second
Second
The second , sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a units of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units SI base unit of time....
, though some units store "bursts" of data at a much higher frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
if the data begins to change quickly. Most FDRs record approximately 17-25 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
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to flight by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere, of a planet. Examples include balloons, airplanes and helicopters....
acts as a "crush zone" to reduce the shock that reaches the recorder. Also, modern FDRs are typically double wrapped, in strong corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion means the breaking down of essential properties in a material due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means a loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen....
-resistant stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel does not stain, corrode, or rust as easily as ordinary steel , but it is not stain-proof....
or titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Sometimes called the ?space age metal?, it has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver colour....
, with high-temperature insulation
Thermal insulation
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....
inside.
Future devices
Since the recorders can sometimes be crushed into unreadable pieces, or even located in deep water, some modern units are self-ejecting (taking advantage of kinetic energy
Kinetic energy
The kinetic energy of an object is the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the mechanical work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its current velocity....
at impact to separate themselves from the aircraft) and also equipped with radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
and sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigation, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive....
beacons (see emergency locator transmitter) to aid in their location.
Alternatively other aircraft such as the Space Shuttle Orbiter
Space Shuttle Orbiter
The Space Shuttle orbiters are the orbital spacecraft of the Space Shuttle Space Shuttle program operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States....
do not 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
Digital
A digital system uses discrete values, usually but not always symbolized numerically to represent information for input, processing, transmission, storage, etc....
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. 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.
