Crash-protected units that record flight data and flight deck sounds so that investigators can reconstruct what happened during an occurrence.
What it is
They are popularly called ‘black boxes’, yet they are painted bright orange with reflective strips so they can be found easily among wreckage. Passenger aircraft above a certain size must carry two: the flight data recorder (FDR), which stores hundreds or thousands of technical parameters, and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which captures conversations and sounds on the flight deck. Some aircraft combine both in a single unit, and others carry two combined units.
At their heart is an armoured memory module designed to withstand impacts of thousands of g, fires above 1,000 °C and the pressure of the deep ocean. They are usually fitted towards the rear of the fuselage, which tends to suffer less in an impact, and carry an underwater locator beacon that sends out an acoustic signal for weeks once it is immersed.
After an accident, reading them out is the job of the investigation authority, which sometimes turns to a better-equipped laboratory in another country. Their data also help explain minor incidents and improve training.
Related terms
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Flight recorders. Retrieved October 18, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders
MLA
“Flight recorders.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Flight recorders.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Flight recorders. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders (Accessed: 18 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_flight_recorders,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Flight recorders}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders}},
urldate = {2026-10-18},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-18}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/flight-recorders |title=Flight recorders |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-18 |language=en}}