The Australian invention of the Black Box flight recorder

[gary]

The fact that the "Black Box" flight data recorder was invented by an Australian is very well known.

However, this 18th June 2021 story (https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/space-age/the-inventor-of-the-black-box-was-told-to-drop-the-idea-and-get-on-with-blowing-up-fuel-tanks) by Allison Marsh writing for the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum Magazine
provides a fascinating read on how David Warren, who was born in 1925
on Groote Eylandt, in the Northern Territory, first floated the idea to
his bosses at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL), a part
of Australia’s Department of Defence, by way of a Technical Memorandum.

A Melbourne instrument maker made the first prototype in 1958, however :-





Full story, photos here :-
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/space-age/the-inventor-of-the-black-box-was-told-to-drop-the-idea-and-get-on-with-blowing-up-fuel-tanks

[multiweb]

Great article. Persistence pays off.

[xelasnave]

Thanks Gary that was very interesting.
But its so often the case that someone has a great idea and those around him find no praise... There are countless examples but I cant think of one at the moment but it has happened to me ...
I do believe one of the reasons Australia has so many successful inventors/ inventions is because we seem to be less influenced by what another may think...I recall reading about a young sailor in Japan who wanted to sail to USA would not and could not share his goal with anyone because of fear of judgement and I think so much so that he had to get his boat built in another town...
Alex

[FlashDrive]

That's correct ...typical of Departments and Defence ' belittling ' an invention by pioneers who thought up a fantastic idea.

And today ALL Airlines have them installed ...Our country had no vision for the future safety of Airline Travel ....typical ...another great invention that headed o/seas, and was backed by other Governments.

Col.

[FlashDrive]

Here's another one ( USA this time ) ....a young aircraft mechanic came up with a brilliant idea of putting ' Vanes ' into the inner side of the landing gear wheels ....with the idea that when the landing gear was deployed, the Vanes would ' catch ' the rushing wind and start to ' spin ' the wheels very fast and landing like this gave the Tyre's a better life span.....better than landing with non rotating ones .

He presented his ' idea ' to the head Engineers and they did a trial run.....after fitting new rubber on 1 Aircraft only , it was flown / touch and go experimenting over a period of many months .

It was found that having the ' Vanes ' installed increased the life span of new tires was near on twice that of standard wheels with no Vanes

The US Military has a vast number of Aircraft ....The tire companies got wind of this and didn't like it at all. So they said if you do this to your Aircraft we will not give you the ' discount ' on the tires we are contracted to make for you.

The tire company saw huge losses and their bottom line would suffer.

So...the ' Vane Installation ' was shelved.

Col.

[multiweb]

Not surprised at all. My dad was a chemical engineer. The factory he was working at was doing well. competitor bought them and closed them down. Some bean counter had worked out that it was more cost effective to shell out the money to get rid of them and recoup cost down the road than trying to compete on prices. Dog eat dog. Always will be about money and interests in the end.