Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments

Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments

They can survive in lava for half an hour and accelerations of 3,400 Gs. Their beacons can be detected 20,000 feet beneath the waves. Most shocking of all - they aren't actually black! (They're bright orange = the least common colour in nature.)


Today it's the invention of the iconic Black Box (or Flight Recorder). We'll meet David Warren, the Australian who invented them. We'll learn how they work and try to fathom the strange fascination they hold.


Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long


Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more.


Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.


If you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can email us at ds.hh@historyhit.com, we'd love to hear from you!


You can take part in our listener survey here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episoder(1499)

Churchill's Cook

Churchill's Cook

Annie Gray is a wonderful historian and broadcaster. Her latest project is a biography of the woman who cooked for Churchill. Georgina Landemare was one of the few people able to cope with the demands...

23 Feb 202023min

Georgian Musings on Homosexuality

Georgian Musings on Homosexuality

Eamonn O'Keeffe is a young Oxford Researcher in the midst of a PhD. He stopped off in Wakefield Library to look at a journal Yorkshire farmer Matthew Tomlinson to see if the author had any opinions on...

20 Feb 202015min

The Boundless Sea

The Boundless Sea

We are a land animal. But millions of us have taken to the sea to live, fight, travel, eat, escape and seek fame and fortune. I am obsessed with the sea. On how humans have built ever more efficient a...

19 Feb 202022min

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz

This is the most remarkable father and son story I have ever come across.We are still marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz here at History Hit and this time I am talking to hist...

17 Feb 202045min

West Africa before the Europeans

West Africa before the Europeans

Toby Green has been fascinated by the history of West Africa for decades after he visited as a student and heard whispers of history that didn’t appear in text books. Years later he wrote ‘Fistful of ...

16 Feb 202026min

Suicide at the Fall of Nazi Germany

Suicide at the Fall of Nazi Germany

There is almost no end to the dark secrets that emerge from the smashed ruins of 1945 Europe. Dr Florian Huber has spent years researching the fascinating story of the epidemic of suicide that spread ...

13 Feb 202022min

The Adventuress

The Adventuress

In the 1930s Lady Lucy Houston was one of the richest women in England and a household name, notorious for her virulent criticisms of the government, but politics had been far from her mind when, as y...

12 Feb 202021min

A Very Stable Genius

A Very Stable Genius

Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig are both Pulitzer Prize winning journalists at the Washington Post.They've written a new book with yet more revelations from inside the Trump White House so Dan seized ...

10 Feb 202022min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-katastrofe
henrettelsespodden
historier-som-endret-norge
rss-benadet
historier-som-endret-verden
aftenposten-historie
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
historiepodden
med-egne-oyne
rss-frontkjemperne
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
sektledere
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
liberal-halvtime
rss-gamle-greier
taakeprat
vare-historier
rss-politisk-preik
virkelig-grusomt