posted on Oct, 28 2003 @ 01:23 PM
www.emc2fraternity.org...
Here you go. This write up claims the Airbus as the first fly-by-wire and then goes to describe the conflict between the first-pass software and
human controls...
and then follows up with: this software was corrected.
Which means: it is no longer fly-by-wire.
You need to get your nomenclature straight. Autonomous flight control software is NOT fly-by-wire. Fly-by-wire is a phrase reserved for aircraft
that CANNOT be safely flown by humans.
There are usually two reasons for fly-by-wire systems:
1. The maneuverability capabilities of the aircraft preclude the slow response time of a human pilot from maitaining control during extreme maneuvers
(i.e. fighters)
2. Either the controls surface areas are large enough, or the flight regime includes flight conditions that cause the forces required to manual
operate the control surfaces that are outside the maintainable, or even initially achievable forces for a human pilot.
THEREFORE, a fly-by-wire aircraft is UNFLYABLE by a human pilot.
There are no US commercial aircraft that are fly-by-wire.
They may have autonomous flight control software, but it is Aalways overridable by the pilot, and the aircraft are always flyable by a human pilot.