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Black box inventor dies, age 85

David Warren, an Australian scientist who invented the black box flight data recorder, has died, at the age of 85.

Warren, came up with the idea for the cockpit voice recorder after investigating the crash of the world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, in 1953. He thought it would be helpful for airline accident investigators to have a recording of voices in the cockpit.

He designed and constructed a black box prototype in 1956, but it took several years before officials understood just how valuable the device could be and began installing them in commercial airlines worldwide.

Warren was born in 1925 in a remote part of northeast Australia. In 1934, his father was killed in a plane crash in Australia....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)