The black box, officially called the flight data recorder, records key flight information that can be used to investigate aircraft accidents. Modern black boxes use solid-state technology to record over 1,000 parameters including aircraft speed, altitude, and engine performance. Flight data recorders have evolved from recording only 5 parameters on metallic foil to digital recorders with thousands of data points. Information recovered from the crash-proof black box recorders helps determine the cause of accidents and improve aviation safety.

1. ©The Omniscient People©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Analysis & Black Box
By Shankar Narayan, Ex. Addl. General Manager, HAL, Nasik
Special Officer , Amrita college of Engineering & Technology

2. ©The Omniscient People
Content
• Introduction
• Evolution
• Technology used for Recording and Storage
• Flight Data- Output of Black Box
• FDR, CVR & VRS
• Retrieving Information from Black Box
• Parameters Recorded in a Black Box
• Construction & Testing of Black Box
• Black Box Data Analysis Examples
• Summery

3. ©The Omniscient People
Introduction
• Black Box is a part of Avionics System in an
aircraft
The Black Box is a Flight Data Recorder (FDR)
used to record specific aircraft performance
parameters.
What is a Black Box ?

4. ©The Omniscient People
The Black Box
The colour of the Black Box is Orange, because orange
colour is very easy to identify so that its recovery is
easy.
Then Why it is called a Black Box?
When we recover FDR from accident site it may be
covered with thick black suite. Also it contains
enormous amount of data which no body knows and it
is a black box for others

5. ©The Omniscient People
Evolution
The first prototype FDR was produced in 1956 by Dr.
David Warren of the, then Aeronautical Research
Laboratories of Melbourne, Australia

6. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Recorders
Aircraft Type Introduced
into
service
FDR Type Number of
parameters
FDR data
Details
Boeing 707 1958 Analogue 5 Mechanical limit of about
10
parameters
Airbus 330 1993 Digital
(solid-state or
tape medium)
280 128 wps (serial data input)
Embraer 170 2004 Digital
(solid-state)
774 256 wps (serial data input)
Airbus 380 2007 Digital
(solid-state)
>1000 1,024 wps (serial data
input)
Boeing 787 2009 Digital
(solid-state)
>1000 Ethernet system

7. ©The Omniscient People
FDR B 707
• The Boeing 707 (B707) was typically equipped
with a five parameter 10 analogue FDR.
• Data was recorded by engraving traces onto a
metal foil.
Boeing 707 (B707) FDR

8. ©The Omniscient People
FDR A330, E170, Airbus 380, Boeing 787
• The A330 is equipped with a solid-state FDR and a
separate solid-state CVR.
• Embraer 170 aircraft are equipped with digital voice
data recorders (DVDR’s). A DVDR is a combi-recorder
that records both cockpit audio and flight data in a
single box.
• Airbus 380 & Boeing 787 has Solid State Digital
recorders as FDR

9. ©The Omniscient People
Technology used for Recording and
Storage:
 Paper recorder
 Metallic foil recorder
 Photographic film recorder
 Magnetic Tape
 Solid-State Technology – Digital recorders
Earlier Analog Recorders
Present Digital Recorders

10. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data
Flight Data Comes in Various forms:
1. Graphs of Parameters (Flight Data Recorder - FDR)
2. Audio (Cockpit Voice Recorder- CVR)
3. Video (Video Recording System - VRS)
These Recorded Data are very essential for the analysis of aircraft flight performance
* They Come as individual units or combined Unit
Useful Data (Parameters) from various systems of aircraft when an aircraft is in flight

11. ©The Omniscient People
Output of Black Box
• FDR- The Flight Data Recorder, plots a graph various aircraft
Parameters on a time scale Basis for the entire duration of
Flight.( speed. Altitude, engine temperature, system fail, etc.
Both continuous and event parameters.
• CVR- The Cockpit Voice Recorder, records all the audio
information from pilots Head Set. (audio warnings,
Communication, etc.)
• VRS- Video Recording System, records The video information
as seen by the Pilot from cockpit and also the Video
Recordings of the Important Instruments in the Cockpit.

12. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Recorders
The Flight data recorder (FDR) is
designed to record the operating data
from the aircraft systems.

13. ©The Omniscient People
FDR Block Diagram
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Signal
conditioning
Amplifier
Crash
Recorder
Parameters
Systems
A/D conversion
Data Acquisition

14. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Recorder
Sensors
Digital Flight data
Acquisition Unit
Flight data recorder
Raw
Binary
data
Engineering
Unit
Conversion
FDR Data Plots
FDR Data Listings
Animation
Onboard
Offboard
Aircraft Power Supply : 115V ac , 400Hz and DC 28V

15. ©The Omniscient People
Photographic Recorders

16. ©The Omniscient People
Foil Type Recorder

17. ©The Omniscient People
Tape based recorders

18. ©The Omniscient People
Solid state Recorders

19. ©The Omniscient People©The Omniscient People
Cockpit Voice Recorders:
CVR is designed to track the
conversations of the flight crew.

20. ©The Omniscient People
Cockpit Voice Recorder
Pilots head set &
Other Microphones
Input
Amplifier &
signal conditioning
Recorder unit
Audio Player Amplifier
Speaker
Onboard
Offboard
Aircraft Power Supply : 115V ac , 400Hz and DC 28V

21. ©The Omniscient People
The Positions of The Microphones:
 Pilot's headset
 Co-pilot's headset
 Headset of a third crew member (if there is a third crew
member)
 Near the center of the cockpit, where it can pick up audio
alerts and other sounds

22. ©The Omniscient People
Black Box - Combi Version
FDR + CVR

23. ©The Omniscient People
Video Recording System
Outside
View
Cam
Input
Amplifier &
signal conditioning
Recorder unit
Video Player Amplifier
Disply Unit
Onboard
Offboard
instruments
View
Interface
Aircraft Power Supply : 115V ac , 400Hz and DC 28V

24. ©The Omniscient People
Retrieving Information:
Portable

25. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Retrieval
Milking of Flight data …….

26. ©The Omniscient People
Animated output FDR

27. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Recorder Graph

28. ©The Omniscient People
Built To Survive:
In many airline accidents,
the only devices that
survive are the Crash-
survivable memory units
(CSMUs) of the flight data
recorders and cockpit voice
recorders.

29. ©The Omniscient People
Testing a CSMU (FDR)
There are several tests that make up the crash-
survival memory unit
 Crash impact
 Pin drop
 Static crush
 Fire test
 Deep-sea submersion
 Salt-water submersion
 Fluid immersion

30. ©The Omniscient People
FDR Analysis Process
FDR Data Acquisition
Raw Data File
(binary, synchronized)
Decoding Grid
Parameters
(physical values)
Data Presentation
Data Analysis

31. ©The Omniscient People
Flight Data Analysis
• Aircraft Test Flights
• Flight Snag Rectification
• In Case of Aircraft Accident/ Accident Investigation.

32. ©The Omniscient People
Parameters Recorded By Most FDRs:
 Time
 Pressure altitude
 Airspeed
 Vertical acceleration
 Heading of Aircraft
 Control surface position
 Engine RPM
 Power Supply Voltages
 Aircraft Pitch angle
 Aircraft Roll angle, etc.
Continuous Parameters

33. ©The Omniscient People
Parameters Recorded By Most FDRs:
 Autopilot ON/ OFF
 Radar Fail/ Ok
 Computer Fail/ Ok
 System Serviceable Yes/ No
 Aircraft on Ground/ Air
 Radar Memory On/ Off
 Navigation On/ Off
 Attack On/ Off
 Power Supply Fail/ Serviceable
 Attack Mode On/ Off.. etc
Event (On/Off) Parameters

34. ©The Omniscient People
Black Box Data Analysis Example 1
Aircraft overshoots the runway and Crashes
• Aircraft Speed at the time of landing (FDR)
• Serviceability of braking system (FDR)
• Pilots communication (CVR)
• Video recording of landing instruments (VRS)
• Video Recording outside view from cockpit
(VRS)

35. ©The Omniscient People
Aircraft Navigation is inaccurate at way point 7
• Power supply voltages & Frequency
• Aircraft pitch & roll angle
• Time
• Recorded Latitude and longitude at wp 7
• Heading wrt North
• Serviceability of Navigation computer,
Accelerometers, speed sensors, Radars, Bearing to
wp 7, etc.
• Video recording of Instruments (VRS)
Black Box Data Analysis Example 2

36. ©The Omniscient People
To summarize…
From Black Box we can derive important data about aircraft
mishap and analyze the information & answer unanswered
questions.
The information Recovered from Black Box helps in aircraft
flight snag rectification by the Ground Crew.
Data recovered can be used for Training pilots and Ground
Crew.
The Black Box Data can be used as a yard stick to measure
aircraft flight performance

37. ©The Omniscient People
• In the 1960’s, the usefulness of flight recorders was not
universally acknowledged & treated with skepticism
• Today they are accepted as a vital tool in the
investigation of accidents and incidents.
• The challenge for the aviation sector is to design &
develop lighter and less expensive flight recorders .
• The challenge for flight data analysts is to ensure that
flight data is validated, analyzed and presented
objectively and accurately with ease.
• The challenge for the Aircraft Ground crew is to have a
better Data Retrieval method with a better Retrieval
Software
To summarize…

38. ©The Omniscient People
What is now proved
was once only
imagined.
William Blake
Thank you…
©The Omniscient People