If theblack box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash why isnt the whole plane made out of it?

Answer 1

Oh, for Gods sake.............................................

Answer 2

First, it is not true that the black box is never damaged. It is just more tolerant to damage than the rest of the plane.
If you read the questions, you would see that this question has been asked at least 100 times.
A plane could be made from the same material, but if heavy enough to be as resistant to damage the plane would be too heavy. Add more power, you say. OK. I added more power and it actually flew, but when it crashed it bored a hole in the ground so deep there were no survivors, not even the black box.

Answer 3

Black boxes are frequently damaged in a crash. For instance, some models, like the F2100 from Loral, will have two banks of solid state memory and thread beween each banks every 4 seconds, so that if one side is damaged beyond hope, at least some data could be recoverable; 4 seconds of data, 4 seconds of missing data, 4 second of data, and so on.

Beyond that, the issue and the answer is the same as that needs to be provided as this questions gets asked on average once every day, airplane can carry a small box that is built like a safe, but no plane would be able to fly if it was entirely built like a bank vault. Moreover, if a plane built like a vault was to crash, the passengers would be squished around on the inner walls; coming to rest on soft ground after a plane is broken down to small bits is perhaps less damaging to a corpse than hitting the front of an indestructible plane that came to rest on the side of a mountain, from the inside of said plane. Only advantage is that all the parts of the equally dead passengers would remain inside instead of being scattered. Us aerospace engineers would rather spend time making sure a plane does not crash in the first place.

Answer 4

Black boxes (normally orange color) are made of high grade steel and sealed from water. They have three back up systems of microfilm-like a cassette recorder, digital data and electronic chip that saves the data during the few last seconds before the plan crashes. If it gets damaged heavily the microfilm won't be readable thus the data are extracted from digital data saver and the chip. If the whole plane was made of high grade steel the strength to weight ratio won't allow any plane to fly because it would be too heavy...
Plans are designed to carry cargo and passengers while back boxes are designed to save data during fire, water and etc.

Answer 5

it will be way too heavy to the point that the plane cannot fly anymore and anyway a lot of knowledgeable people in the industry would rather concentrate on making the plane safer and crash-free and avoid accident or eliminate to zero per cent mechanical or human errors than thinking of making the equipment durable. and don't think that this is not possible because like the survey said flying is still the safest mode of transportation in this planet.

Answer 6

Can't actually add anything more to what has already been said,but it's true the materials although virtually indestructible, ( I like that word!!!) are too heavy to have the entire plane made of it... funny thing too that although it's called a black box, it's actually bright orange!It's the little recording thing inside that is black.

Answer 7

Unfortunatley, flight recorders aren't exactly lightweight. Sometimes, I've seen a few people lug them around. That material wouldn't be light enought to make an airplane.

Excellent thinking...but it's like a fantasy. When you bring math and science and all that it makes no sense anymore. But it is a good idea and someday it'll probably happen.

Answer 8

Why are people here concentrating on the weight and physical properties of the flightbox?
Weight and strength has got nothing to do with it.
Sure, aviation investigators want recorded tape or solid state recordings to survive a crash, but we are talking about living biological organisms, not solid electrical equipment!

If you have heard about crumple zones in vehicles then you will understand my point.
Cars and planes need energy absorbing materials in order to achieve a controlled deacceleration and to divert the energy into energy absorbing material rather than directly to the occupants.
Placing passengers into a solid fuselage aircraft of black box grade material would be absolutely pointless, if the aircraft did crash and remained undamaged then do you think the passengers inside would remain the same? It would be like looking inside a strawberry milkshake blender.

Answer 9

It would be too heavy and its not just the material the Black Box is made out of, its the way its built as well (I think)

Answer 10

Because the material so so strong and heavy that the plane would never get off of the ground, the weight would be too much

Answer 11

OMG this question is so over-done. Every time I come to this section of Yahoo Answers, some nit-wit thinks they have dropped the funniest question of they day with this doozy. Give it a rest!