[Ensam]

(03-29-2015 05:04 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

^^^ What kind of material is the black box made from that it can withstand the force of a plane hitting the ground at 500mph while everything else is reduced to shrapnel?

I've also always wondered if it's feasible to have a humongous parachute in the tail of the plane to be deployed in emergencies. Kind of like the parachutes that slow down space capsules after reentering the atmosphere. I know the space shuttle had parachutes in the tail.

The problem isn't the existence of a material that can withstand that kind of impact - plenty exist. Moderately thick steel will probably survive fine. The problem is weight. If you made the whole airplane out of something strong enough to survive a crash it'd never be able to get off the ground.

There are plane parachute systems:


The kind of accidents that airliners get into aren't usually the type that would be helped by a parachute. It's almost always controlled flight into terrain. There's a human at the controls actively overriding whatever safety systems are in place either by mistake (Air France 447 crash) or on purpose (as appears to be the case in this situation). As long as safety measures can be overridden by people there will still be accidents caused by people.