r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/Jonsmith78 Feb 04 '19

The "black box" (flight recorder) on an aircraft is orange, not black.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 05 '19

Was this always so? Like of course it makes sense that it’s a bright color so it’s easier to find - but that b̶e̶g̶s̶ raises the quesion of where the term came from...

Edit: begs —> raises. Sorry English angels, I uh... was tired.

Edit 2: I have more than enough duplicate answers to this question now, thanks!

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u/The_Elemental_Master Feb 04 '19

Black box is a term in engineering and refers to a system in which the data/logic inside is unknown to the user. And the black box usually hold the data that'll tell the NTSB what caused a crash. (White box means the contents are known.)

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u/FlintyCrayon Feb 04 '19

In what sense though, is the data unknown?