David Ronald de Mey Warren AO (20 March 1925 – 19 July 2010) was an Australian scientist, best known for inventing and developing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (also known as FDR, CVR, and "the black box").
Curiously, Warren’s own father died in an unsolved plane crash off the southern coast of Australia when Warren was 11. The young Warren was fascinated by the last gift his father had given him – a crystal radio set. Soon, he was building the sets and selling them to classmates.
He went on to work as the principal research scientist at Melbourne’s Aeronautical Research Laboratories, a branch of Australia’s defense department. In 1953, he helped investigate the crash of the world’s first commercial jetliner, The Comet, in which 53 people died.
With insufficient data to draw upon, it was impossible to reach any conclusions as to what caused the crash.
At around the same time, Warren attended a trade show where he saw a demonstration of a small pocket recording device meant for businessmen.
Thus was the idea of an in-flight recorder born.
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents.
Flight recorders are also known by the misnomer black box—they are in fact bright orange to aid in their recovery after accidents.
According to legacy.com & wikipedia
