The Black Box: An Australian Invention That Nearly Didn’t Happen

文/比爾·斯科菲爾德 譯/李娟

The Black Box: An Australian Invention That Nearly Didn’t Happen

文/比爾·斯科菲爾德 譯/李娟

Why are our planes crashing?

The most curious aspect of the development of the black box fl ight recorder was the widespread resistance to its adoption, as it encapsulated the most fundamental tenet of scientific inquiry—gathering reliable data to draw conclusions.[2]It arose out of boredom during a meeting in the 1950s in Canberra.Experts from the Aeronautical Research Laboratory (ARL; now part of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation or DSTO) were trying to find why the new British aircraft—the Comets—were crashing.[3]David Warren was a chemist employed to conduct research on fuels for the new gas turbines that were entering aeronautical service at that time. He’d been asked to calculate what the effect would be if the fuel tanks on the Comets were blowing up.

[4]His answer was that it would not explain the damage of a recovered crashed Comet. While other experts speculated on possible causes he had an obvious (in hindsight) thought—what they needed was data.

[5]So he went back to his lab and wrote a very short tech memo on the need to record data in aircraft that would assist crash investigation. For the technology of the day, recording all aircraft fl ight data was impossibility.

[6]Dr Warren thought that the Comet pilots would have known what was wrong with their aircraft, which is why black boxes include a cockpit voice recorder.

Recorders need to survive the crash

[7]In the early 1950s none of the recording tapes would survive a burning plane crash, but at a trade fair Dr Warren saw the first of the wire voice recorders. The Miniphon wire recorder was the basis of Dr Warren’s first elemental recorder—now in the DSTO library at Port Melbourne.

[8]He found that capturing clear records of cockpit conversation from microphones in the instrument panel and overhead was anything but easy but over time, he developed usable techniques.

[9]Working with instrument colleagues at ARL they found a way of putting flight data as well as voice recording on the wire. This led to the construction of a much improved version in the late 1950s which was very advanced for its time.

[10]Dr Warren showed remarkable tenacity in the black box development;he was a chemist engaged to and under continual pressure to focus on fuels and pass his black box invention over to the instrumentation section.

[11]While others could develop the box it was Dr Warren who tried to get it adopted—and against unbelievable resistance. In an of fi cial letter from the Air Force rejecting the suggestion of putting boxes on RAAF planes it was stated that Dr Warren’s voice recorder would yield “more expletives than explanations”.

[12]After the fatal crash of a Fokker Friendship approaching Mackay airport in Queensland in 1960, Justice Spicer,chairing the Board of Inquiry, stated that black boxes should be installed in commercial aircraft.

[13]But the Australian Department of Civil Aviation purchased a US system instead of Dr Warren’s.

[14]The US system proved useless in a subsequent air crash investigation. A commercial opinion of the day said the worldwide market would be as little as six boxes per year as they would only be installed on experimental aircraft during proving fl ights.

[15]The Defence Department declined to patent the device as it saw little commercial justification for the cost of A￡2,000.

A chance meeting

[16]The whole flight recorder project had languished until 1958 when Laurie Coombes, then director of the ARL, wished to fi ll a gap in the schedule of a visiting UK official Sir Robert Hardingham, the Secretary of the British Air Registration Board.Coombes introduced him to Dr Warren who talked about the black box, and not fuels research.

[17]Sir Robert thought it was an excellent idea and Dr Warren was soon flying to the UK to present it to the Royal Aeronautical Establishment and a few UK commercial instrument makers.

[18]He came home through the US visiting a number of aeronautical establishments and commercial companies—none of which were at all interested. The first black boxes were initially produced in the UK with acknowledgement of its Australian origins but these acknowledgements soon disappeared.

A lost invention

[19]In 1965, cockpit voice recorders were mandated in all commercial aircraft built in the US and the western world followed.

[20]The IP rights of Australia to the invention were, by this time,compromised, but in recognition of the background IP the Department of Defence was paid UK￡1,000.

[21]I joined ARL in 1965 when the work on the black box was winding down, but Dr Warren often talked to me at length about the history of the black box.

[22]He wasn’t angry that he’d not been taken seriously by the powers-thatbe, but more upset that Australia missed out in exploiting an invention which is, today, in hundreds of thousands of aircraft. ■

飛機為什么會失事？

收集可靠數據以得出結論是科學調查的基本原則，黑匣子飛行記錄器就是這一原則的集中體現，然而相關機構卻普遍拒絕安裝它，這是其開發應用過程中最令人好奇的一個方面。

[2]20世紀50年代在堪培拉舉行的一次會議期間，黑匣子在僵局中應運而生。當時，澳大利亞航空實驗研究室（ARL，現在是國防科學與技術組織的一部分）的專家們正盡力查明英國最新飛機彗星客機的墜毀原因。

[3]戴維·沃倫是一位化學家，負責研究當時引入航空領域的新型燃氣輪機所用的燃料。他曾應邀計算彗星客機燃料箱爆炸可能產生的影響。

[4]他計算后的答案是，即使找到墜毀的彗星客機，也無法解釋造成的損害。其他專家推測失事的可能原因時，他卻有個事后看來很明確的想法，那就是他們需要用數據來說話。

[5]于是，他回到實驗室，就飛機上記錄數據在幫助失事調查中的必要性寫了一篇極其簡短的技術備忘錄。對于那時的技術而言，記錄飛機所有的飛行數據毫無可能。

[6]沃倫博士認為，彗星客機的飛行員應該清楚飛機的故障所在，這也是黑匣子中包括駕駛艙話音記錄器的原因。

記錄器需在飛機墜毀后保持完好

[7]20世紀50年代初，飛機墜毀燃燒后所有記錄帶也會化為灰燼，但在一次商品交易會中，沃倫博士看到了第一代鋼絲錄音機。沃倫博士在Miniphon鋼絲錄音機的基礎上設計出第一個基礎記錄器，該記錄器現存于墨爾本港的國防科學與技術博物館。

[8]他發現，通過儀表板和頭頂上方的麥克風獲取駕駛艙清晰的對話記錄絕非易事，但一段時間之后，他開發出了可以運用的技術。

[9]在ARL，他和負責儀器的同事一起工作，找到了一種把飛行數據和聲音記錄在鋼絲上的方法。20世紀50年代末，根據該技術制造出了一種大幅改良的版本，這在那個時代十分先進。

[10]沃倫博士在研發黑匣子的過程中展現了非凡的毅力。他是一名化學家，受雇專事于燃料研究以及將黑匣子由發明推向生產，在此過程中，他一直承受壓力。

[11]其他人可能參與了黑匣子的開發，但努力使它被采用的是沃倫博士，這一過程遭遇了令人難以置信的阻力。澳大利亞空軍發公函拒絕將黑匣子安裝在空軍飛機中，信中表示，沃倫博士的聲音記錄器“招惹的是非會多于表明的事實”。

[12]1960年，“福克友誼”號飛機在靠近昆士蘭州麥凱機場時機毀人亡。事故發生后，擔任調查委員會主席的斯派塞法官聲明，商用飛機應當安裝黑匣子。

[13]但是，澳大利亞民航局沒有購買沃倫博士發明的黑匣子，而是購買了一套美國系統。

[14]隨后的一次空難事故調查表明，購買的美國系統毫無用處。當時的市場觀念是，黑匣子只安裝在試飛的實驗型飛機上，因而其全球年均銷量只有6個。

[15]國防部拒絕為獲得黑匣子的專利花錢，認為投入這2000澳大利亞英鎊幾乎沒有商業價值。

偶遇

[16]整個飛行記錄器項目處于停滯狀態，直到1958年情況才有所好轉。那一年，時任航空實驗室主管的勞里·庫姆斯將來訪的英國官員、英國航空注冊局局長羅伯特·哈丁厄姆爵士介紹給沃倫博士，希望填補其日程安排上的空當，博士談起了黑匣子，而沒有談燃料研究。

[17]羅伯特爵士認為這是一個很好的想法，很快，沃倫博士便飛往英國，向英國皇家航空研究中心和英國幾個商用器械制造商展示他的黑匣子。

[18]他經由美國返澳，在美國，他拜訪了好幾家航空機構和商業公司，但沒有一家對他的黑匣子感興趣。第一批黑匣子最初產于英國，有著公認的澳大利亞血統，但該認可很快便無人再理了。

丟失的發明

[19]1965年，美國要求其國內制造的所有商用飛機安裝駕駛艙話音記錄器，其他西方國家紛紛效仿。

[20]澳大利亞原本享有黑匣子發明的知識產權，此時卻遭到侵犯，但澳大利亞國防部擁有背景知識產權并得到認可，為此收獲1000英鎊。

[21]1965年，我進入航空實驗室工作，那時黑匣子的相關工作已漸漸降溫，但沃倫博士經常向我詳細講述黑匣子的歷史。

[22]他并沒有因不受當權者器重而生氣，而是為澳大利亞錯失從發明中獲利的良機而遺憾，如今，這一發明已應用在成千上萬的飛機上。 □

黑匣子：險遭忽視的澳大利亞發明

ByBill Scho fi eld

（譯者單位：中國石油大學（北京）外國語學院）