What is an airplane black box? How many are there? What color is it?

At present, rescue work at the scene of the China Eastern Airlines passenger plane crash, post-accident disposal and investigation of the cause of the accident are underway. On the afternoon of the 23rd, a black box from the accident was found, and the search and rescue work made significant progress. So, what is an airplane black box? How many are there? What color is it?

1. What is an airplane black box?

1. Black box is the common name for electronic flight recorder. Instruments used to record aircraft flight and performance parameters. In fact, its appearance is not like a box, but more like a streamlined container. It is a sealed container that is 1/3 to 1/4 the size of an ordinary drawer. The information recorded by the flight recorder can be used for flight accident analysis. People can process the data and voice records before the plane crash and send them into a flight simulator to reproduce the process of the accident and analyze the cause of the accident in a vivid way.

2. The outer shell of the black box is made of very thick steel plates and many layers of heat-insulating, impact-proof and pressure-resistant protective materials. It is usually installed in the safest part of the tail of the aircraft. The recording medium has also been improved from magnetic tape to a static storage recorder that can withstand greater impact, similar to the memory chip in a computer, to prevent the black box from being damaged in an air crash.

2. How many black boxes does an airplane have?

There are two. They are the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. The former can record the conversation between pilots from takeoff to landing. The recording tape is fireproof, waterproof and shockproof. The latter can record various data during flight. The flight recorder is housed in a black metal box that is resistant to high temperature, high pressure, waterproof and corrosion. The black boxes of modern aircraft are painted orange or yellow, but they are still customarily called black boxes.

3. What color is the airplane black box?

It's orange (orange-red), not black.

4. What information is contained in the airplane’s black box?

1. According to the purpose of the black box, it is figuratively called judge, instructor and doctor. The so-called judge is used for flight accident investigation. After the accident, by retrieving the black box and decoding and analyzing the data, the real cause of the accident can be determined to avoid the recurrence of similar accidents. The so-called instructor refers to the function of pilot monitoring. Through daily analysis of the black box data, the pilot's bad driving habits can be corrected to prevent accidents. The so-called doctor plays a role in aircraft fault diagnosis and maintenance. Through daily analysis of the black box data, the health status of the main components of the aircraft can be monitored and predicted, hidden faults can be checked, and faults can be prevented from developing into accidents.

2. In order to obtain objective and comprehensive information during accident investigations, the types and quantities of data recorded by black boxes are increasing. The types of data have expanded from the original flight and audio data to video and data link data; the number of parameters has gradually developed from the original five to hundreds or even thousands. Flight data generally includes the operating status of the aircraft and engine, pilot control conditions, external information of the aircraft, etc.; audio data generally includes conversations between the pilot and co-pilot, conversations between the aircraft and the ground, conversations between the crew, and cockpit environmental sounds, etc.; video data generally includes cockpit instrument displays, pilot actions, the view in front of the aircraft, the retraction and extension status of the landing gear, etc. Through dedicated data playback software, the black box data can be used to intuitively and realistically reproduce the aircraft's flight process, automatically analyze potential aircraft failure hazards and abnormal personnel operations, prevent failures or accidents, and greatly improve the level of aviation flight safety.

As we all know, the black box is the flight recorder of the aircraft. There are two of them. Although they are inconspicuous at ordinary times, they are a very important component on the aircraft and the only important component after the aircraft accident.