Google Doodle honors David Warren, so who is David Warren?

Today (March 20), Google Doodle honors Dr. David Warren, the inventor and developer of the aircraft data recorder and cockpit recorder (black box).

He was born on March 20, 1925 in the remote Groote Eylandt, off the north coast of Australia. David Warren has an excellent degree from the University of Sydney, earning a degree in education from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in chemistry from Imperial College London.

After returning to Australia, he embarked on a 31-year career at Melbourne’s Commonwealth Aviation Laboratory (ARL) in Melbourne.

In 1953, the ARL was tasked with investigating a mysterious crash of the world’s first commercial jet. The difficult task this time is to reconstruct what happened and Dr. Warren has come up with an ingenious idea.

He envisioned a recording device intended to record conversations in the cockpit of an airplane, providing important details about what happened before the crash, helping to avoid something similar happening in future.

Faced with initial skepticism, Dr. Warren developed a prototype for his own testing, creating the world’s first “black box” – though his model was painted red.

This became the first device capable of recording sound combined with data of flying equipment, creating a breakthrough for the aviation industry.

Today, black boxes are a must in aircraft cockpit worldwide, playing an indispensable role in the continual improvement of aviation safety standards.

Thank you Dr. David Warren for his selfless dedication to helping keep the lives of millions of people safe, everywhere.