Airbus A380

"I do have a problem with thier financial backing and thier flight controll systems that have hard limits built into them.

i also agree with the above statement.

back in 1983 when an air canada 767 ran out of fuel, the pilot had to make a last minute adjustment in the "dead stick landing" ( as you all know it's called dead stick 'cause if you make the wrong move with the stick you're dead) aproach to the runway. Had the 767 been givin hard limits, like airbus jets, then he would not have been able to put it into a side slip so he would'nt over shoot the runway, as it's a maneuver that is not recomended for comercial jets and that boeing did not think was possible for the jet to do ( it probably would have been in the hard limits not to allow). btw a jet on average touches down 1000 feet from the threshhold, the air canada pilot touched down 900 feet from the threshhold of the runway or maybe it was 1100 feet. it's in the book he wrote

Actually, you can put the Airbus onboard flight computers into a mode that will allow you to do ANYTHING with the aircraft, limits or not. The 'hard limits' FredT talks about are there for normal flight usage, and if you really really need to exceed the limitations (which are there for reasons - stressing the airframe too much etc) then you can place the computer into 'unsafe' mode, which raises the limits to the actual airframe limitations. (Heheh, I love having access to the Airbus flight and maintenance manuals - I may PDF them and stick them up on the web sometime if people are interested

In 2001, an Airbus A330 from Toronto to Lisbon, Portugal ran out of fuel due to a cracked starboard fuelpump. At 1,500miles from Lisbon, both engines failed due to the pilots not realising that there was a fuel leak, and exacerbated the problem by cross pumping fuel. At 150 miles from the Azores, both engines failed.

The pilots brought it down from 33,000ft to a safe landing over a 18 minute glide to a military airfield.

If you really want to do dangerous things with the aircraft, the computers will let you by you telling them specifically that you want to take control out of their hands.

i wouldn't trust control of any aircraft soley to a computer, you're libal to have to close all the windows, shut it down, turn it back on, hit ctrl-alt-delete, ( hopefuilly you're still in the air) then open all windows back up again. not to mention the fact that it would crash for unknow reason even when on the ground

Brings a new meaning to the term "I`ve just crashed"!