What is a black box? Know its functions, specifications, other details

When India mourned the loss of General Rawat, his wife, and other armed forces officers, a big question on everyone's mind was the cause behind the crash and the importance of the black box behind solving that mystery. Today, we will tell you all about the black box - its specifications, functions, and its importance.

What is a black box? 

A Black Box is an important electronic device which is also known as the Flight Data Recorder that records 88 critical parameters about a flight such as its airspeed, altitude, cockpit conversations, and air pressure, among other things. 

What does a black box do?

The black box provides crucial data and reveals the data about the flight's final situation and other aspects.

All about the black box 

Despite its name, a Black Box is neither black in colour, nor looks like a box. Though called a black box, the flight data recorder is painted in bright orange colour and it records the flight data and cockpit conversations.

Many historians credit their invention to Australian scientist David Warren in the 1950s. Notably, a Black Box is compulsory for all commercial airliners and armed forces.

How is a black box made? What is inside it?

A Black Box weighs about 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) and contains four main parts.

A chassis or interface designed to fix the device and facilitate recording and playback 

An underwater locator beacon 

A core housing or 'Crash Survivable Memory Unit' which is made of stainless steel or titanium. 

Inside there, the precious finger-nail-sized recording chips on circuit boards which in the latest case could help decide the near-term fate of Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX. 

There are two recorders: a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) for pilot voices or cockpit sounds and a Flight Data Recorder (FDR).