François Hussenot and Paul Beaudouin made one of the first attempts at creating a Flight Recorder in 1939, in France. The device was called the “type HB” flight recorder, acting as a photograph-based flight recorder, as the record was made on a photographic film – 8 meters long (8.7 yd). The HB recorders remained in use in France until the 1970s.
Hussenot later founded the Société Française des Instruments de Mesure with Beaudouin (SFIM) in 1947. This company went on to become a major supplier of data recorders, used also in trains and vehicles. SFIM is today part of the Safran group and is still present in the flight recorder market.
During World War II, another form of flight recorder was developed in the UK. This unit was able to withstand a crash and fire, in order to keep the flight data intact. This was actually the forerunner of the recorders we use today, as it was able to withstand conditions that the aircrew could not. At the war's end the Ministry got Harrison and Husband (the inventors) to sign over their invention to it and the Ministry patented it under British patent 19330/45.
David Warren, Australina research scientist is actually considered to be the one who actually invented the “Black Box”. He played a key role in the invention of the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) and the development of the FDR. In 1958, he built the first combined FDR/CVR prototype.
It was designed with civilian aircraft in mind, explicitly for post-crash examination purposes. Aviation authorities from around the world were largely uninterested at first, but this changed in 1958 when Sir Robert Hardingham, the secretary of the British Air Registration Board, visited the ARL (Aeronautical Research Laboratories) and was introduced to David Warren. Hardingham soon realized the significance of the invention and talked Warren into demonstrating the prototype in the UK.
The ARL assigned an engineering team to help Warren develop the prototype to airborne stage. The team, consisting of electronics engineers Lane Sear, Wally Boswell and Ken Fraser, developed a working design that incorporated a fire-resistant and also a shockproof case, a reliable system for encoding and recording aircraft instrument readings and voice on one wire plus a ground-based decoding device. The ARL system, made by the British firm of S. Davall & Sons Ltd, in Middlesex, was named the "Red Egg" because of its shape and bright red color.
The units were redesigned in 1965 and relocated at the rear of aircraft to increase the probability of successful data retrieval after a crash.
The term "black box" was a World War II British phrase, originating with the development of radio, radar, and electronic navigational aids in British and Allied combat aircraft. These often-secret electronic devices were literally encased in non-reflective black boxes or housings.
By 1967 when flight recorders were mandated by leading aviation countries, the expression had found its way into general use.
