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What color is an airplane's 'black box'?
The color makes it easy to find after a crash.
Flight recorders are required on commercial aircraft so that investigators can reconstruct what happened before an accident. There are two functions: a flight data recorder that logs parameters such as altitude, airspeed and control positions, and a cockpit voice recorder that captures sounds and crew conversation. The memory units sit inside a crash-survivable housing made of steel with thermal insulation, and an underwater locator beacon helps divers find them in water.
The bright orange paint, often described as international orange, is there for visibility among burnt or scattered wreckage, and many units also carry reflective tape. The colour has nothing to do with the recording technology. Recorders are typically installed toward the tail of the aircraft, where the structure tends to survive an impact better, although exact placement varies by aircraft type.
The popular name 'black box' is a misnomer for the colour. Explanations for the nickname vary and none is firmly established; one common suggestion is that it comes from engineering usage in which a 'black box' is any unit whose internal workings are not examined, though that remains a theory. Early recorders of the 1950s were developed in Australia and elsewhere, and the rules requiring them later spread worldwide as aviation regulators standardized the specifications.