[magellan]

Unbelievable!

I just heard on Hannity and Colmes an America West pilot (Captain Stewart) say if the electronic system which controls the nose gear fails, the nose wheel turns 90 degrees to the nose.

What the heck? I mean, a designed failure mode which creates a problem?

If the gear locked to the line of the airplane, you could still control the steering of the aircraft with differential thrust and braking. Why on earth would it default to perpendicular to the normal direction.

Idiotic French engineers, no doubt.

Or maybe the quirky Brits. On my Landrover, you do not push in the button to enable the rear door child proof door latches, instead you push the button to enable the adult door latches. In other words, you move a switch to set the system to normal mode.

As a passenger, I love the A320's wider cabin over the cramped 737, but in an emergency, give me a Boeing any day.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

"Thank you for flying Jet Blue. This plane was overhauled by low-wage mechanics in El Salvador"

http://www.gregspotts.com/main/2005/01/thank_you_for_f.html

[supercat]

If the gear locked to the line of the airplane, you could still control the steering of the aircraft with differential thrust and braking. Why on earth would it default to perpendicular to the normal direction.

I would tend to think that if the wheel is going to lock at any angle, +/- 90 degrees is probably safer than zero. At such an angle, the wheel will have basically no effect on the steering of the plane; a pilot will thus be able to keep the plane on the runway using the rudder and engines. By contrast, if the front wheel were locked "straight" ahead and the pilot's path wasn't quite straight down the runway, the locked front wheel would make it harder for the pilot to straighten out his course.