23 Jul |
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It was from our AFP wire, and covered the death this week of Dr. David Warren, who passed away in Australia at the age of 85. Now, you've probably never heard of Warren, but chances are that if you've ever flown in a passenger jet and arrived safely on the other side you have him to thank for it. You see, Dr. Warren is the man who invented the flight data recorder for passenger aircraft — the device that records technical info and cockpit conversations and stores them in the erroneously named 'black boxes' housed towards the tail of the plane. Today, the moment there's any form of aircraft accident, the black boxes (which are actually orange) are whisked away to help explain why the plane came down. Air France is currently spending millions of euros trying to locate the recorders from AF447, which crashed into the Atlantic last year. Warren came up with the revolutionary idea while investigating the crash of the world's first commercial jet, the de Havilland Comet, in 1953. He — quite rightly — reasoned that if they could have heard what the pilots were saying they’d have a better chance of solving why the plane came down. And, crucially, make sure it didn't happen again. In a visionary piece of engineering he spent three years building a prototype black box that was able to store four hours of voice recordings and instrument readings. Incredibly, the idea was initially rejected and it would take 10 years before data recorders became standard on commercial jets, with Australia leading the way. It's changed the face of commercial jets, and I reckon he deserves a quiet salute from iafrica.com. Next time you're zipping along at 34 000 feet, spare a thought for the quiet Australian who quietly transformed airliners into the safe, predictable machines they are. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites            |