The first book to focus on the dramatic story of the development of the cockpit voice recorder by David Warren, a remarkable man who created arguably the most important safety device in aviation history.

Fifty years ago, 28-year-old Australian research scientist David Warren conceived the idea of recording cockpit conversation as a tool for air accident investigation. His brilliant insight changed the course of aviation history. This book also chronicles the human aspects of the cockpit voice recorder story-the inspiration, the setbacks, the encouragement and the disappointments.

215pp; 18 b&w photos; paperbound; List Price $29.95 Bargain Price $24.95

The Biblical aphorism ‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country…’ may well apply to Dr David Warren. A fuel chemist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) in Melbourne, Australia, Warren developed the first practical cockpit voice recorder (CVR) during the Fifties (Airways, July 2004). With the added capability of ‘capturing’ several channels of mechanical data, all on the then-revolutionary recording medium of thin steel wire, Warren’s flight data recorder (FDR) looked set to conquer the world of aviation safety and accident investigation.

But David Warren and his ARL Flight Memory unit (as it was dubbed) received far greater recognition and encouragement abroad—notably in the United Kingdom—than in the inventor’s homeland. As Janice Peterson Witham—the Canadian-born author of Black Box—points out, there was considerable initial opposition in Australia to permanent fitment of a recording device in aircraft cockpits, invasion of privacy being cited as a key factor. Overseas, however, elements of Warren’s compact, technically brilliant, easy-to-install-and-use Flight Memory were combined with contemporary technology from Britain and the USA, resulting in the first commercially-viable FDR equipment. Only later, after a series of inexplicable commercial airplane disasters, did Australian authorities mandate the installation of FDRs in locally-registered airliners. But, by then, any initiative by Warren and ARL to manufacture and market Flight Memory had been lost to foreign interests.

Black Box takes the reader through the remarkable life of David Warren, beginning with his humble birth in 1925 to Anglican (Church of England) missionary parents on a remote aboriginal settlement in Australia’s Northern Territory. As a student at boarding school in Sydney, Warren showed glimpses of his future engineering brilliance when he became a radio—or ‘wireless’—expert, building simple crystal radio sets for sale to his schoolmates.

Sadly—and perhaps ironically—around this time David Warren became linked to a tragedy in early Australian airline history. His father, Reverend Hubert Warren, was one of 12 persons killed when the Australian National Airways (ANA) de Havilland D.H.86 Miss Hobart crashed into Bass Strait during a flight from Launceston to Melbourne in October 1934.

Witham recounts how, as a young engineer at ARL, Warren first became interested in the concept of recording cockpit conversation after the de Havilland Comet 1 disasters. The book proceeds to describe the subsequent triumphs and setbacks, bureaucratic indifference and obfuscation—culminating in success tinged with bitterness and disappointment—that Warren experienced as he strove to develop Flight Memory whilst promoting its value and practicality to the world’s aviation authorities, not least his fellow-Australians.

Given her apparent non-aeronautical background, Witham has done a creditable job of drawing together all the technical and political strands in this fascinating yet frustrating story. For the same reason, the reader may easily forgive the author a few terminological inaccuracies repeated throughout the book; for example, ‘Boscombe Downs’ (instead of Down), Civil ‘Aviation Authority’ (for the US Civil Aeronautics Administration), and ‘Fishermans’ Bend (in lieu of Fishermen’s Bend). She also refers to the Handley Page Hastings military transport as a ‘bomber’.

Black Box is distinguished by a Foreword from Macarthur Job, Australia’s respected ‘elder statesman’ of aviation safety and prolific author on accident investigation and related subjects (Airways, August 2004). Rounding off Witham’s informative and important work are chapters (appendices, actually) on the value of CVRs in accident investigation, and brief synopses of accidents that were landmarks in advancement of FDR usage. An index is another useful adjunct to this compelling story of one man and his drive to create, and propagate the ‘gospel’ of, what is today one of the most important tools in aviation safety investigation and research.

RT