- Joined
- 23 January 2001
- Messages
- 1,809
Just my 2 cents from an Electrical and Computer Engineering background. If you knew how computers (and the software that runs on them) are designed & manufactured, how bugs are found, how ASICs are qualified, etc., you wouldn't trust a computer to fly a plane without a pilot in 2005. Granted, the computers on planes have multiple redundant systems, but I would still want a pilot to monitor everything. Most ASICs these days have 99.x% fault coverage, but it's that .x% where you still need the pilot.
My pilot friends tell me that in most modern airliners, the computer *can* fly the plane, including takeoff and landing (to the point that he sometimes jokes that pilots are just there to push buttons), but the pilot is still needed to monitor the flight deck, and react at a moments notice to situations that the computer can't even begin to forsee. In most cases, even though the computer is fully capable for the conditions at hand, the pilots are usually the ones that takeoff and land the planes.
Regarding the Airbuses that don't have the control yokes, and rely on the sticks on the console, my friend who flies the A340 told me that the design is somewhat flawed in that it can allow "dual input" from both pilots (leading to possible disastrous results), so on the flight deck, it has to be clearly stated "I have control" before the sticks are touched. Just an example how the fly-by-wire system may not be 100% mature yet.
My pilot friends tell me that in most modern airliners, the computer *can* fly the plane, including takeoff and landing (to the point that he sometimes jokes that pilots are just there to push buttons), but the pilot is still needed to monitor the flight deck, and react at a moments notice to situations that the computer can't even begin to forsee. In most cases, even though the computer is fully capable for the conditions at hand, the pilots are usually the ones that takeoff and land the planes.
Regarding the Airbuses that don't have the control yokes, and rely on the sticks on the console, my friend who flies the A340 told me that the design is somewhat flawed in that it can allow "dual input" from both pilots (leading to possible disastrous results), so on the flight deck, it has to be clearly stated "I have control" before the sticks are touched. Just an example how the fly-by-wire system may not be 100% mature yet.
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