You’ve never heard of David Warren, have you?  Well, Mr. Warren was the inventor of the flight recorder.  The so called “black box” that is actually painted flourescent orange on most aircraft today.   Mr. Warren passed away last week in his native Australia.  You can see a photo of him HERE.

Mr. Warren, a radio and electronics nut, was invited to participate in a probe about one of the first jetliner crashes in the world and during that probe, he suggested that with a recording of what was going on in the cockpit, finding out what happened would be a lot easier and much more accurate.

His first prototype was capable of recording about 4 hours of voice and cockpit instrumentation.  After a few years, his invention was being installed on virtually every modern aircraft.  I would argue that this invention has contributed more to safety than any other single invention in the industry.  Flight voice and data recorders have made it possible to find out exactly what happened prior to a crash and attribute an accurate cause of a wreck instead of leaving  it up to speculation. 

And how many times have we found out something else entirely was happening during an event versus what popular speculation focused on?  All the time.  There is no doubt that the things we have learned from his invention have improved air safety by an order of magnitude.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Warren, and thank you very much.

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