Comment by joezydeco
14 years ago
As a controls and human-factors engineer, I think the subject is highly relevant and very interesting.
There is a large and distinct difference in the flight control mechanism of these two airplanes. It's been discussed over and over, and the transcript of the voice recorder and control logs show there there was a distinct discrepancy happening in the cockpit while the plane was going down:
"As the plane approaches 10,000 feet, Robert tries to take back the controls, and pushes forward on the stick, but the plane is in "dual input" mode, and so the system averages his inputs with those of Bonin, who continues to pull back. The nose remains high." [1]
So, being in aerospace, is this subject annoying or something that is normally not discussed?
[1] http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/...
I'm not a avionics engineer. But at least under my collegues this is discussed. Unfortunately with a clear preference of the Airbus approach with some "conaisseurs" in between baseing their preferance of the Boeing yoke on aviation tradition. But I guess that's normal for the EADS.
Maybe the controlls were a factor in that crash, but for me it's just two different philosophies. Only my personal opinion and I'm no position to judge that.