Inventor of the Black Box “黑匣子”之父

涂淑梅

飛行事故的調(diào)查過程，往往是復(fù)雜而充滿懸念的，“黑匣子”在其中往往是解開事故之謎的“關(guān)鍵鑰匙”。那到底什么時(shí)候才出現(xiàn)真正意義上的“黑匣子”呢？本期就讓我們一起了解“黑匣子”發(fā)明者的故事吧！

David Warren was a research scientist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory （ARL） in Melbourne.

In the mid-1950s， he was involved in the accident investigations related to the mysterious crash of the world's first jet-powered commercial aircraft， the “Comet”. It occurred to Dave that it would be extremely useful if there had been a recording of what had happened in the airplane immediately prior to the crash.

David then "recalled the world's first 2）miniature recorder that he had recently seen at a trade fair. Suddenly he could 3lvisualize such a recorder placed in all aircraft， continually recording details and able to be recovered after a crash.

David drew on his early work experience as a teacher， remembering“show and tell” was more effective than just “tell”. He decided in his own time， to build a 4）demonstration recorder.

Thus， the first "black box” was born.

It was in 1958， during an informal visit to ARL by Sir Robert Hard- ingham， the Royal Air Force former Vice-Marshal， that the 5）breakthrough occurred. Straightaway Sir Robert saw the 6）potential.

The black box was also successfully demonstrated in Canada. Back in Australia， plans were made for further development and production.

It was only after the crash of a Fokker Friendship at Mackay （Queensland） in 1960 that the inquiry judge strongly 7recommended that black box flight recorders be 8linstalled in all airliners.

Australia then became the first country in the world to make cockpit- voice recording 9）compulsory.

Since that time， David Warren's invention， the black box flight recorder， has been universally adopted as a means to investigate accidents and to prevent their recurrence.

The black box flight recorder has proved itself with its 10lsignificant contribution to international airline safety.

1） recall [r??k??l] v. 回憶起;使想起

2） miniature [?m?n?t??（r）] adj. 小型的;微小的

3） visualize [?v??u?la?z] v. 使形象化;想象

詞組加油站

be involved in 參與;涉及;卷入

it occurs to sb. that 某人突然想起

prior to 在……之前

draw on 利用;憑借 ;（時(shí)光）漸漸過去

4） demonstration [dem?n'streijn] n.示范表演，演示

5） breakthrough ['breikθru：] n.突破，突破性進(jìn)展

6） potential [p?'ten]l ] n.潛力，潛能

7） recommend [，rek?'mend] v.推薦，介紹;勸告，建議

8） install [in'sto：l] v.安裝，安置

9） compulsory [k?m'pals?ri] adj.強(qiáng)制的，必修的

10） significant [sig'nifikent] adj.重大的，有意義的

戴維·沃倫是墨爾本航空研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室的一名研究科學(xué)家。

20世紀(jì)50年代中期，戴維參與了與世界上第一架噴氣式民航客機(jī)“彗星”號(hào)神秘墜毀有關(guān)的事故調(diào)查。戴維想：如果有一份飛機(jī)墜毀前發(fā)生的事情的記錄，將會(huì)非常有用。

然后，戴維想起了他最近在一個(gè)貿(mào)易展覽會(huì)上看到的世界上第一個(gè)微型記錄器。突然間，他可以想象這樣一個(gè)記錄器被放置在所有飛機(jī)上，不斷地記錄航班飛行細(xì)節(jié)，并能在墜機(jī)后恢復(fù)數(shù)據(jù)的場(chǎng)景。

戴維借鑒了自己早期作為教師的工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)，一直謹(jǐn)記著“展示和講述”比僅僅“講述”更加有效。他決定利用自己的私人時(shí)間，發(fā)明一個(gè)展示型的記錄器。

因此，第一個(gè)“黑匣子”誕生了。

1958年，英國皇家空軍前副司令羅伯特·哈丁漢姆爵士對(duì)墨爾本航空研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室的一次非正式訪問中，“黑匣子”的發(fā)展有了突破性的進(jìn)展。羅伯特爵士一眼就看出了“黑匣子”的價(jià)值。

“黑匣子”也在加拿大成功地進(jìn)行了演示。戴維回到澳大利亞后，制訂了“黑匣子”進(jìn)一步研發(fā)與生產(chǎn)的計(jì)劃。

直到1960年，一架“?？擞颜x”號(hào)飛機(jī)在麥基（澳大利亞昆士蘭州）墜毀后，調(diào)查法官才強(qiáng)烈建議在所有客機(jī)上安裝“黑匣子”。

隨后，澳大利亞成為世界上第一個(gè)強(qiáng)制規(guī)定駕駛艙必須配備語音記錄儀器的國家。

從那時(shí)起，戴維·沃倫的發(fā)明—“黑匣子”被普遍采用，成為調(diào)查事故和防止事故再次發(fā)生的一種手段。

“黑匣子”對(duì)國際航空安全做出了重大貢獻(xiàn)，證明了自身極強(qiáng)的適用性。

Know More

“黑匣子”，學(xué)名為“飛行參數(shù)記錄器”?？蜋C(jī)上安裝的飛行參數(shù)記錄器有兩個(gè)：一個(gè)是飛機(jī)數(shù)據(jù)記錄器，負(fù)責(zé)記錄飛行時(shí)間、速度、高度、飛機(jī)舵面偏度、發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)轉(zhuǎn)速等數(shù)據(jù);另一個(gè)是座艙話音記錄器，負(fù)責(zé)記錄機(jī)上空勤人員的對(duì)話、機(jī)上與地面的通話，以及機(jī)艙里的各種聲音?！昂谙蛔印钡耐鈿こ尸F(xiàn)明亮的橘紅色并配有發(fā)光帶，這樣在飛機(jī)失事時(shí)，外表醒目的“黑匣子”就會(huì)比較容易被找到。