Good Article on Airbus

[Jim727]

Originally posted by teenerted1
weren't the 737 tails maintenance issues? i seem to remember the one in the ocean off California was one where someone didn't repair a known faulty control screw.

That was a McDonnell-Douglas MD-something (DC-9 derivative). Improper jackscrew lubrication.

Originally posted by teenerted1
...does auto pilot do more than control level flight? is it connected to GPS on the old 757? if not maybe someone needs to look out the windshield. or at least fly above the clouds

Autopilots can do most everything *except* look out the windshield. Excessive reliance on automation is a big problem in aviation today. Yes, someone should be using the windshield, weather permitting.

Jim

[Zef]

Rudder loss...Hmmmm...I was an employee of Air Transat when the A-310 lost his rudder control panel near the Florida coast...After that incident ,I have done the special inspection of the A-310 fleet vertical fin...found some crack there and the design of that fin don't impressed me at all...!

[Zef]

A pic of that fin...

[teenerted1]

well THERE'S your problem!!!

[Brian 162]

Very timely topic. I fly to Vancouver tomorrow on Air Canada which means Airbus.

[MFAFF]

This Boeing versus Airbus debate is an on going and almost theological one...

The rationale for both can and is debated ad nauseam...

Neither are perfect and overall the differences are slender at best.

The pilots (here) by and large prefer the 'feeling' of being more in control in a Boeing (pax aircraft only) than the Airbus....fair enough, its their preference.

But they are only one facet of the airline...so the overall package needs to be looked at.. for the last 6 years Airbus has offered a better overall offer to airlines than Boeing, this year and possibly for the next few years that trend may well be reversed.

Certainly having spent much of my working life with the non pilot side of airlines and airports the Airbus/ Boeing debate is noe which is veiwed very differently by others....and the advantages are always very slim.

The reality that both companies produce a 'good' airframe....its the definition of good that varies....nothing else. To state categorically as many have that X is better than Y is merely a personal opinion...and somebody else could logically and rationally present the exact opposite and be correct....

Its like a a Ferrari fan and a Porsche fan arguing which is 'best'....

[air-cool-me]

+1 for boeing....

refuse toulouse. this really is a religious topic

[legion]

Can we extrapolate the difference in European and American government in the differences in aircraft design?

Stay with me here...

Americans assume that the individual will act in his own best self-interest to preserve his own life. Boeing designs planes that "trust" the pilots judgements.

Europe believes that the individual is incapable of doing what is best for himself and must be gently guided [overtly overridden] by those who know best (the government/Airbus engineers). Airbus designs planes that will take a pilots inputs into consideration, but ultimately may decide to do something different.

[MFAFF]

Its an interesting topic..

I guess the computers that permit the American ( + another) military aircraft are merely reflections of the mindset..nothing to do with a rational approach to the design problems and the adoption of a solution that the designers and Clients feel is most appropriate.....

To say they reflect a national mindset is pretty far fetched....