Location Transport

Why does the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) call the voice recorder in a aircraft..?

the block box. When its orange? ok my question was why do they call it a black box or voice recoreder when it orange. Yes i know why its orange because they can find in wreckage easily.So why is it called a black box?

Public Comments

1. "Black box" is a nickname only. It's orange or yellow striped or whatever color to be easy to spot in the wreckage.
2. ..and why do they call it gangreen when it gans black?
3. the black box
4. Because black is the colour of death, and the boxes will only be required after an accident. they are dayglo orange to make them easier to find in the wreckage
5. The Cockpit Voice Recorder or "CVR"
6. The NTSB doesn't call it a "black box" They refer to it by it's actual name, either the Cockpit Voice Recorder or the Flight Data Recorder. The press, and the public in general, commonly call it "black boxes." For lack of a better name, most boxes containing electronic or electrical devices, buried away inside the aircraft, are often referred to as black boxes. This has been common since WWll. It doesn't necessarily refer to it's color, rather it's a catch-all name for any electrical or electronic component housed in a box. This question must get asked a dozen times a week, along with the other stupid one about Kamikaze pilots and helmets!
7. Sul is right. "Black box" is slang for anything the contents of which are either unknown or irrelevant. In the software business I'm in we sometimes refer to a piece of our code as a "black box" -- inputs go in and outputs come out and what happens inside is irrelevant to the discussion. Processes within a company could be a black box. For most people, the IT department is a black box. It is unknown what goes on there, only that they seem to always require more money and when we threaten to cut back or eliminate them they raise issues that make it sound like they could take down the business. Sometimes a black box is one that contains secret devices or processes. You might have a black box in an audio processing circuit in order to scramble voice communication. You don't want people to know what goes on in that part of the circuit, so you document only the inputs and outputs. Sul is also right that only the press calls the CVR or FDR a "black box". While it is a "black box" to them, it isn't to most of the rest of us. It's like when they say "the pilot said the engine stalled". It's unlikely a pilot would say the engine "stalled". The engine may have cut out, quit, failed, or fallen off the airplane, but it didn't "stall". Chances are good that the pilot said the airplane stalled, and the reporter who is not an aviator assumes he meant the engine quit.
8. In the industry, the cockpit voice recorder is referred to as the "CVR".
9. You're confusing the black box with the protective container it is in. --Two different things.