Flight recorder
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A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to colloquially as a "black box", an outdated name which has become a misnomer—they are now required to be painted bright orange, to aid in their recovery after accidents.
A modern flight data recorder; the underwater locator beacon is the small cylinder on the far right. (Translation of warning message in French: "Flight recorder do not open".) The warning appears in English on the other side.
Cold War-era Soviet MS-61 cockpit voice recorder from a MiG-21 interceptor
A Fairchild A100 cockpit voice recorder, on display in the Deutsches Museum. This is a magnetic-tape unit built to an old standard, TSO C84, as shown on the nameplate. The text on the side in French says "Flight recorder do not open".
"Mata-Hari" flight data recorder
Underwater locator beacon
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An underwater locator beacon (ULB), underwater locating device (ULD), or underwater acoustic beacon is a device that emits an acoustic pulse intended to guide searchers equipped with a suitable receiver to the location of the beacon underwater.
A 4-inch (100 mm) underwater locator beacon, with ballpoint pen for scale
A ULB attached to a bracket on a cockpit voice recorder