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Witness History: Inventing the black box

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Inventing the black box

01/11/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Inventing the black box

In 1962 a prototype of the cockpit flight recorder was tested in Australia

In the early 1950s an Australian chemist had an idea that would change flying forever. In 1962 he saw his revolutionary invention take flight.

On 23 March 1962, a prototype of the first cockpit flight recorder, the black box, was tested in Australia.  

In the early 1950s, fuel scientist David Warren, who worked in the Australian government’s aeronautical research laboratories, attended a talk about the reasons for a recent plane crash.  

David thought that if only he could speak to a survivor, he’d have a much better idea of what caused the crash and could prevent future ones.  

This led him to develop a recorder that would collect vital information of the last few hours before a plane goes down.  

Today the modern equivalent of the black box is compulsory equipment on passenger planes all over the world.  

In 2015, David’s children, Jenny and Peter Warren, and a former colleague, Bill Schofield, spoke with Catherine Davis about how his idea changed air travel forever.  

(Photo: The flight data recorder known as a black box used in aircraft. Credit: Getty Images)

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