David Warren - Inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder

Following the crash of a Fokker Friendship plane in 1960 in Queensland, a judicial order required that all Australian airliners carry speech recorders. Australian authorities ignored the local talent and awarded the contract to USA company which caused delays in development and installation.

A further disaster at Wintoon in 1967 saw Australia became first country to make both flight data and cockpit voice mandatory on all turbo-props and jets.

Dr Warren is aware that support in the initial phase of his invention could have resulted in wider benefits to Australia and himself, but remains philosophical - the attitude he faced at the time was one of "if its any good the Americans would have it already" but Dr Warren takes satisfaction from the benefit the idea has wrought and believes that keeping an open mind will help us to avoid the mistakes made by his superiors in the past - "As you get older, you shouldn't loose the excitement of something new".