why do they call them black boxes when they are yellow?

Answer 1

Flight Data Recorders (FDR), and Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) are painted a bright orange colour so that they are highly visible and can be more easily detected if the aircraft crashes.

The expression "black box" that you mention is nothing more than "journalese".

Journalists like to have snappy little expressions, and readily use them.

These expressions do not necessarily relate to reality.

Answer 2

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 (flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder) in aircraft, the event recorder in railway diesel locomotives, the Event Data Recorder in automobiles and other recording devices in various vehicles. Black box (systems) is also a term used in physics and electronics to describe a mechanism in which the input and expected outputs are well understood but whose internal operations are deliberately and completely unknown, but this has no special connection with recording devices.

The black box term originated when after a meeting about the first commercial flight recorder named the "Red Egg" for its colour and shape, someone commented that, "This is a wonderful black box." Black box is more a humorous cadigan than an accurate term (the recorders are not generally black in colour, nor are their operations unknown), and is almost never used within the flight safety industry.

A number of observational comedians have joked that, because the box seems to be indestructible, the substance used to make the box should be used to make the entire aeroplane

Answer 3

Hi, I am an airline pilot flying for more than 25 years. First of all, black boxes are not really boxes... they are circular and generally painted with a fluorescent high color generally red so they can be more easily located when investigators are lookking for them after an accident or incident. That is why they are given the name black, because they are related to an accident. Generally there are 2 of them and also, although not in a black box, we have a voice recorder that records all the conversation held at the cockpit during the flight. If no event requires it's keeping it erases automatically after the flight ends, not so with the information recorded in the black box where it is kept always. Hope the latter answers your question.

Answer 4

The CVR and FDR are only two of many examples of 'Black Box' which is a recognized term dating from when all sealed self contained electronic modules were flat black. They replaced rugged containers as I'll explain later.

The definition of 'Black Box' from Wiki is, a technical term for a device or system or object when it is viewed primarily in terms of its input and output characteristics. Almost anything might occasionally be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, humans, the Internet.

It further states in current usage, In electronics, a sealed piece of replaceable equipment; see line-replaceable unit.

Black Box History

I was in aviation electronics when the term "Black Box" came into usage. Originally electronics consisted of large units with vacuum tubes, capacitors, inductors and resisters, with soldered wire circuitry. AC was 400Hz to reduce component size but they were still large as you can imagine if you've ever seen a Vacuum Tube Radio.

Computers had similar components but also incorporated gang tuned servos and resolvers. When they failed, you would trouble shoot the system in the aircraft and remove the defective component to the workshop for repair.

At that time gates such as; and, not, nand, and nor were determined by the grid bias of tubes, (valves), normally pentodes. You had to recognize the function by the circuitry. Symbols only evolved with solid state components.

Each model Radio, Tacan, Omni or Radar had it's own unique appearance. (They were often used in several type Aircraft. The ARC 27 UHF was used in several Trainers, Fighters, Transports and Patrol Aircraft.) They also dedicated a good bit of space to cooling ducts and fans to dissipate the heat generated by the tubes, transformers, etc. The weapons guidance radar in the noose of the F-6A, F4-D1, Skyray was not even enclosed. The module llike palates hung from a rail in the upper section of the nose. When electronics became solid state in the early sixties system were modularized in compact, nondescript, black boxes.

The entire method of trouble shooting changed as Technicians only had to replace 'black boxes' which were sent to 'Intermediate Maintenance' for repair. Line trouble shooting became obsolete and instead the technicians were dubbed, "Black Box Changers".

Note: I attended USN Aviation Weapons Guidance, Radar/Computer school. After three weeks of studying oscillators the instructor held up a small piece of silicon with leads and said, Men this little thing will do everything I've taught you in the last three weeks. I don't know how but we'll be teaching it soon as we understand it." Solid State had arrived.

Answer 5

I suspect it was called a black box was because in the early days aircrew didn't know what was in them and what they were recording. It took a lot of crashes to get out what the information is.

Classified projects are often call "black" projects because no one is to know what is going on except the principals. So the name "black box" kind of stuck

Answer 6

Just another media influence There are black boxes on the aircraft but the ones the media talk about are orange

Answer 7

Because they would normally be black. The ones you hear about all the time in planes are bright orange or yellow with reflective strips to make them easier to find in wreckage.

Answer 8

OO--OO--OO (imitating Horseshack from Welcome Back Kotter), I KNOW!
Back when they first installed them, the were located in the area where the wing met the fuselage, as this is the strongest part of the structure. Unfortunately, it's also where the fuel tanks are. They became "BLACK BOXES" after burning up in a lake of jet fuel after a crash!

Answer 9

They are orange. Nobody but the media calls them black boxes. You're whatching the news too much.

Answer 10

they are orange actually, and they PROBABLY call them black boxes "because the black content they will find in them" or PROBABLY because after the plane crashes and burns the "black box" gets burned and looks all black.

The correct name is, Cockpit Voice Recorder or CVR.