David Warren, who is widely credited with creating the prototype of the flight data recorder, or “black box,” an advance in aviation that was partly inspired by the death of his father in a plane crash when he was 8, died on Monday in Australia. He was 85.

His death, at a nursing home in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, was announced by Australia’s Defense Department.

Mr. Warren, a government aeronautical researcher who had operated a ham radio as a boy, worked against skepticism and ridicule to create his device. But it, and later generations of it, proved to do exactly what he thought it would: simultaneously record the conversations of pilots and instrument readings.

After a crash, aviation authorities now scramble to recover the box  encased in steel and insulated against fire  so they can determine what happened minutes before. The information not only helps fix responsibility; it has also resulted in many safety improvements.