So-called black boxes are sadly back in the news again since AirAsia's have finally been found. But how do they work? When it was first invented in 1958 by Australian mathematician, chemist, and aeronautics scientist David Warren, amazingly enough, world aviation authorities at first showed little interest, but after Australia made it compulsory in 1960, more countries gradually came on board, and today the use of the “black box” flight data recorder (also known by acronyms FDR and ADR) has become virtually universal... keep reading