Are aircraft black boxes actually black?

No. The aircraft flight recorders commonly called black boxes are orange. Their familiar nickname does not describe their exterior colour.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau explains that the orange paint helps investigators recover the equipment. Airbus independently describes orange flight recorders and the practical benefit of making their cases easier to identify.

The term also covers different recording functions: cockpit audio and aircraft operating data. These can be housed in separate recorders or combined equipment. Neither the nickname nor the number of physical boxes fully explains what is recorded.