“黑匣子”之父

◎ 涂淑梅

飛行事故的調查過程，往往是復雜而充滿懸念的，“黑匣子”在其中往往是解開事故之謎的“關鍵鑰匙”。那到底什么時候才出現真正意義上的“黑匣子”呢？本期就讓我們一起了解“黑匣子”發明者的故事吧！

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 then1)recall [r??k??l] v. 回憶起；使想起recalled the world’s first2)miniature [?m?n?t??(r)] adj. 小型的；微小的miniature recorder that he had recently seen at a trade fair. Suddenly he could3)visualize [?v??u?la?z] v. 使形象化；想象visualize such a recorder placed in all aircraft, continually recordinɡ details and able to be recovered after a crash.

David drew on his early work experience as a teacher, rememberinɡ

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;（時光）漸漸過去“show and tell” was more effective than just “tell”. He decided in his own time, to build a4)demonstration [?dem?n?stre??n] n. 示范表演，演示demonstration recorder.

Thus, the first “black box” was born.

It was in 1958, durinɡ an informal visit to ARL by Sir Robert Hardinɡham, the Royal Air Force former Vice-Marshal, that the5)breakthrouɡh [?bre?kθru?] n. 突破，突破性進展breakthrough occurred. Straightaway Sir Robert saw the6)potential [p??ten?l ] n. 潛力，潛能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 judɡe stronɡly7)recommend [?rek??mend] v. 推薦，介紹；勸告，建議recommended that black box fliɡht recorders be8)install [?n?st??l] v. 安裝，安置installed in all airliners.

Australia then became the first country in the world to make cockpitvoice recording9)compulsory [k?m?p?ls?ri] adj. 強制的，必修的compulsory.

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

The black box fliɡht recorder has proved itself with its10)siɡnificant [s?ɡ?n?f?k?nt] adj. 重大的，有意義的significant contribution to international airline safety.

戴維·沃倫是墨爾本航空研究實驗室的一名研究科學家。

20 世紀50 年代中期，戴維參與了與世界上第一架噴氣式民航客機“彗星”號神秘墜毀有關的事故調查。戴維想：如果有一份飛機墜毀前發生的事情的記錄，將會非常有用。

然后，戴維想起了他最近在一個貿易展覽會上看到的世界上第一個微型記錄器。突然間，他可以想象這樣一個記錄器被放置在所有飛機上，不斷地記錄航班飛行細節，并能在墜機后恢復數據的場景。

戴維借鑒了自己早期作為教師的工作經驗，一直謹記著“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間，發明一個展示型的記錄器。

因此，第一個“黑匣子”誕生了。

1958 年，英國皇家空軍前副司令羅伯特·哈丁漢姆爵士對墨爾本航空研究實驗室的一次非正式訪問中，“黑匣子”的發展有了突破性的進展。羅伯特爵士一眼就看出了“黑匣子”的價值。

“黑匣子”也在加拿大成功地進行了演示。戴維回到澳大利亞后，制訂了“黑匣子”進一步研發與生產的計劃。

直到1960 年，一架“?？擞颜x”號飛機在麥基（澳大利亞昆士蘭州）墜毀后，調查法官才強烈建議在所有客機上安裝“黑匣子”。

隨后，澳大利亞成為世界上第一個強制規定駕駛艙必須配備語音記錄儀器的國家。

從那時起，戴維·沃倫的發明——“黑匣子”被普遍采用，成為調查事故和防止事故再次發生的一種手段。

“黑匣子”對國際航空安全做出了重大貢獻，證明了自身極強的適用性。

Know More

“黑匣子”，學名為“飛行參數記錄器”?？蜋C上安裝的飛行參數記錄器有兩個：一個是飛機數據記錄器，負責記錄飛行時間、速度、高度、飛機舵面偏度、發動機轉速等數據；另一個是座艙話音記錄器，負責記錄機上空勤人員的對話、機上與地面的通話，以及機艙里的各種聲音?！昂谙蛔印钡耐鈿こ尸F明亮的橘紅色并配有發光帶，這樣在飛機失事時，外表醒目的“黑匣子”就會比較容易被找到。