Abstract
A flight recorder, commonly known as a black box, is considered the most important witness in the investigation of air accidents. Flight recorders have been considered important parts of onboard equipment for both military and civilian aircraft all over the world already from 1950s. They are used not only for flight evaluation after an unexpected event, but also for a pilot training, pilot skills assessment, diagnostics of on-board systems, and evaluation of aircraft systems as a whole. Thus, these flight recorders contribute to high aircraft reliability and aviation operation safety. This article focuses on Automatic Deployable Flight Recorders (ADFR), currently not often used in the military or civilian aircraft. ADFRs are mainly used for aircraft that fly over vast water areas as classic concept recorders were hard to find when the aircraft crashed into water. This deployable recorder is a reliable flight safety system used e.g. in US Navy F/A-18 multirole combat jets. In addition, creation of this article was inspired by the change in ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices for Operation of Aircraft, implemented in July 2016 in the tenth edition of ICAO Annex 6.
Highlights
Flight safety is influenced by the quality of aircraft manufacturing and the quality of on‐board systems, and by the quality of ground support, pilot skills and an air traffic control organization
The second concept of recorders, firstly called ejectable flight recorders and published in 1964 (US patent No 3140847A), states that the most effective factor for survival of the recording is if the flight recorder is detached from the aircraft in an appropriate time and lands separately, away from the rest of the aircraft
The recovery percentage of the deployable recorders is very high. Another case is worth mentioning which happened on 29th January 2005 when the F/A‐18F Super Hornet aircraft fell in the sea near Japan after an unsuccessful landing on the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier and its recorder (DFIRS) was deployed successfully
Summary
Flight safety is influenced by the quality of aircraft manufacturing and the quality of on‐board systems, and by the quality of ground support, pilot skills and an air traffic control organization. GM Flight Recorder was based on patent of Minnesota university professor James J Ryan and it was capable of storing four data parameters (velocity, g‐force, altitude, and time) for up to 300 hours using a needle engraving into metal foil. Czechoslovak Air Force had several Soviet manufactured aircraft with the first known recorder of type K2‐717 (in Russian called barospeedograph), used for recording barometric altitude, speed and time using needle engraving into a floated whiting layer on a paper strip. This recorder was (in the 1970s) slowly replaced by SARPP-12 recorder, using photographic recording of up to six analogue parameters and ten discrete parameters onto photographic film. They are mainly mechanical forces due to an overload, impact force during an impact into the terrain, action of heat during fire, salt water attack if landed in sea, and attack of aircraft fluids including extinguishing agents
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