If the black box flight recorder is never damaged?

Question

during a plane crash why isn't the whole plane made out of t

Answer 1

Flight date recorders do get damaged. Even destroyed. The material they are made out of is also unremarkable. Titanium or high strength steel. In fact if you were to encase the recorders in aviation aluminium or the like they would survive about as frequently as they do with titanium.

this really isn't about weight

Why is this then? because of size/strength relationships. If you were to throw a small piece of glass at a wall it probably wouldn't break, if you were to shoot a much larger brick of glass at the same speed at the wall it's energy would be so much greater the material wouldn't be able to handle the forces and would shatter. same thing with a plane.

The dice you may have been rolling for you backgammon game when the plane chashed would survive over the microwave in the galley.

If a plane were to be made of high strength steal and crashed it wouldn't remain in one piece but be torn apart, even though a 1/500 scale model of the same plane survives being thrown against a wall by a child.

also in a high-speed crash high G forces kill everyone instantly.

Answer 2

The joking answer is "because the interstates aren't wide enough" (see link below)

If the entire plane was made of 1/4 to 1/2 inch stainless steel, like the flight recorders, instead of 28/1000" aluminum, think of how much it would weigh. No engines made could push the thing on the ground, let alone get it into the air.

Even if you COULD make a plane out of 1/2" steel and get it off the ground, if it crashed, it's still going to be destroyed. The energy of the crash has to go somewhere, and that's into the body of the plane. The reason the recorders survive is that they are mounted near the tail & don't take much impact. Look at pictures of the stern section of Titanic; it was severely distorted when it hit the sea floor and that was after travelling at a speed of maybe 30-40mph.

Answer 3

Why not search for one of the many otehr times some other idiot has asked the same 'clever' question.

Bombs like Tallboy and Grand Slam weren't damaged much from being dropped either, so why don't we make the aircraft with a high grade steel skin 50% of the total volume, then we wouldn't need runways, just a big sand pit where we could crash.

Or how about making planes out of superballs, or footballs, or maybe parachutes. Cotton wool doesn't break when you drop it, we could use that! And it's cheap! I could be on to soemthing here.

Answer 4

It has something to do with color discrimination. The darned aviation people take only bright silvery stuff for making whole planes. Only the smelly "Skunk Works" folks make dark airplanes.

Another brilliant question that can be asked is "If the tail section is not damaged much on impact, why cant you put the entire aircraft in the tail?"

Answer 5

Because the stuff the black box is made from probably costs too much to make a whole plane out of it?!

Either that or it is so heavy that the plane would never be able to fly?

Answer 6

Actually, they sometimes do get damaged.

If the entire plane was made like a black (really orange) box, the plane would be too heavy to fly.

Answer 7

Because so many people have asked this that the plane designers don't want to admit defeat by giving in to people who they consider to not know what they're doing.

Either that or it's too heavy/expensive to make entire planes out of.

Answer 8

the black box is small and its design can withstand the most worst explosion( dunno about nuclear) ,
if the the whole airplane would b made out of that stuff it will be very heavy, brittle and fragile airplane that would break up in the sky under slight stress.
eg get a diamond ull c its hard to break, but if ther was a londer bar shaped diamond it will snap into pieces if u try to bend it.

Answer 9

Well since you like deep thoughts:
Why do they have DRIVE up ATM machines with Braile, ever seen a blind person drive?
Why do we park in our driveway, but drive on a parkway?
Since smoking at gas stations is not only illegal, but dangerous, why do all gas stations sell cigarettes?



Besides who said the flight recorders were never damaged?

THe NHTSA has now started putting black box's in pickup trucks. The last words were normally "Oh no!" "OH SH*T" "Oh my god!"
Except in the South Eastern states where the most common last recording was "Hey bubba watch this sh*t..."

Answer 10

A, it IS made of the same stuff as the rest of the aircraft.
B, they DO get wrecked.
C, They are NOT black.