NT (Northern Territory) NewsNT black box inventor dies July 22nd, 2010 THE TERRITORY-born inventor of the black box flight recorder has died. David Warren died, aged 85, at a Melbourne nursing home on Monday. He was involved in investigating the crash in 1953 of the world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, as it was en route to Australia. The challenge of determining the causes of the accident led him to the idea of a recording device that could withstand a crash where there were no survivors and no witnesses.Dr Warren was born in 1925 at a mission station on remote Groote Eylandt in far northern Australia. He was the first European child born on the island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. As a boy, he was schooled in the country's south, attending Launceston Grammar in Tasmania and Trinity Grammar in Sydney, and developed a love of radio electronics and, later, chemistry. In 1934, his father was killed in one of Australia's first air disasters, the loss of the de Havilland 86 Miss Hobart in Bass Strait.His last gift to David was a crystal radio set, according to a biography on the website of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Dr Warren was the principal research scientist at DSTO's Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne from 1952 to 1983. Early in his career at DSTO's Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne, there was little interest in his data recorder. Dr Warren persisted, and in 1956 he designed and built the world's first prototype flight data recorder, which became known as the "black box". "It took five years before the value and practicality of the flight data recorder concept was realised and a further five years until authorities mandated they be fitted to cockpits in Australian aircraft," the Department of Defence said in a statement yesterday. In 2002, Dr Warren was awarded the Order of Australia for his service to the aviation industry. In 2008, Qantas named an Airbus A380 aircraft after Dr Warren. The aviation safety pioneer is survived by his wife Ruth, four children and seven grandchildren.

Fascinating stuff...learn something new every day. May Dr. Warren rest in peace.

And they'll know exactly how he died, too...Sorry. Moving along now.

Let me guess... instead of a wooden coffin, he will be burried in a steel box capable of withstanding 3,400 Gs and 2000 degrees F (no chance of him being accidentally cremated).

I can just picture it; he saunters up to the Pearly Gates, St Peter hands him a set of wings, and he says: 'You know Pete, I've got a great idea about how we can improve these things....'Al

"He was buried in a casket bearing the label 'Flight Recorder Inventor; Do Not Open.'"--From Wikipedia

Dr. warren is really very great man and what he did for the avionics will never be forgettable. I wish Dr. Warren rest in peace.