An instrument that monitors performance characteristics of an aircraft in flight. It is usually mounted in the tail area of an aircraft and is designed to withstand certain impact forces and a degree of fire. Its purpose is to provide investigators with flight performance data that might be relevant in determining the cause of an accident/incident.Commonly referred to as the 'black box', they are in actual fact painted with bright heat-resistant paint in order to be spotted easily after a crash.They were invented in 1953 by an Australian chemist Dave Warren, who was motivated by the loss of his father in 1934 in one of Australia's earliest air disasters, the loss of Miss Hobart in Bass Strait.