rigorousthinker t1_itqzh9z wrote on October 25, 2022 at 5:41 PM

Reply to comment by Brandon432 in TIL that flight recorders must be able to withstand an acceleration of 3400 g for 6.5 milliseconds and that this is roughly equivalent to an impact velocity of 270 knots (310 mph; 500 km/h). by IchBinKoloss

I wouldn’t be surprised if the flight recorder itself was surrounded by some impact-absorbing material, like an air bag or foam material.

KTKloss t1_itrvcd6 wrote on October 25, 2022 at 9:03 PM

The orange box isnt, its just mounted in the plane. If there was one, I havent seen it. Internally it could be somewhat cushioned.

Fakenamefreddy t1_itrw4pi wrote on October 25, 2022 at 9:08 PM

It’s not it’s typically installed in the tail. The only part that’s typically hardened is the storage, the electrical interface is designed to be changed out. In the pictures fdr the orange cylinder is mass storage which the transponder is attached the silver cylinder. The rest of it is trash in a crash.

getmybehindsatan t1_ittdcbh wrote on October 26, 2022 at 4:00 AM

The memory storage is surrounded by foam, but its main purpose is as heat insulation if there is a fire.