Immediately after September 11, they had not yet recovered either the cockpit voice recorder or the flight data recorder. They eventually found one or the other, but it was not usable. By then they had already recovered two of the products that I designed. The first was blown free of the building by the initial blast, and eventually fell to earth. The second came down with the building. Both of them shared a common trait. If you push the "on" button, they still came on.
The suggestion was made that I should design the next generation of "black box". I took them up on the offer.
A few hours later, I had something better than what we work with today. After another day's thought, I came up with something quite a bit better. Of course, the best way to do this is with well proven technology. Engineers are lazy, and do not do anything out of the ordinary until forced to do so.
I conferred with some of my friends in DOD, FAA, and other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms), and we came to the conclusion that this was a major step forward, but it would need some very minor design changes to accomodate various union regulations. Not a problem, ten minutes work.
I wrote it all up for our corporate heads, and was informed that it was outside the scope of our mission statement. Please, just shoot me.
This is alsmot my first experience with "black box" devices.
- A
