Glitch blamed for out-of-control jet

The Courier-Mail (Australia) ^ | 17sep05 | Steve Creedy

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep.

[patton]

bump

[ASOC]

Fly by wire = die by wire?

[oyez]

Malfunction? Not me.

[ChefKeith]

YARK!!!

I'll bet that was one hell of a ride.

You guys been letting Eaker fly again?

[phantomworker]

777's are not fly by wire, are they? I thought Boeing was against fly by wire.

[Paleo Conservative]

777's are not fly by wire, are they?

Yes they are.

[phantomworker]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/boe202.shtml

You're right. 777 is the only model with that technology.

[zipper]

"Unlike Airbus, Boeing lets aviator override fly-by-wire technology"

Remember the Paris Air Show accident with an Airbus-- couldn't override the fly-by-wire? This is the old joke that came out of that:

Q: What's the difference between a chainsaw and an Airbus?
A: About 300 trees/minute

[bd476]

Airframe by Michael Crichton

[Terpfen]

That was a great book. Somewhat down-to-earth after Jurassic Park. (pun intended.)

[Prophet in the wilderness]

In spite of this incident, the Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any plane ever built.
I don't fault the design of the plane its self, but, rather, the software in one of it's systems were at fault.
Maybe there is a way for them to have the pilot cut off the auto pilot and the auto throttle in the future if there is ever a incident a pilot were to encounter like this.

[Squantos]

Just a solar flare er a rug rats iPod run amuck with the electrics I suspect.

Couldn't be a design flaw.....no way ......;o)

[bd476]

Terpfen wrote: "Somewhat down-to-earth after Jurassic Park. (pun intended.)"

LOL! It was pretty good reading. After finishing the book, I took a cross-country flight and surprisingly felt more safe than ever.

The flight in the story above though would be one I would not have enjoyed.

[bd476]

Squantos wrote: "Just a solar flare er a rug rats iPod run amuck with the electrics I suspect.

Couldn't be a design flaw.....no way ......;o)"

I believe you. We've had some solar flares recently. Kids with iPods are dangerous. Yes. No way a design flaw. No way.

;-)

[Prophet in the wilderness]

They are fly by wire, but, in the PBS NOVA special ( 21 st century jet , the building of the 777 ) I saw of the 777, one of the technical engineers said that calling those system " FLY BY WIRE " is a misnomer and not accurate.

When you talk about " Fly by wire " it's really ( Actualization by wire ).
Were instead of having the metal cables that go the the control surfaces actuators that move the control surfaces either in the wing, ailerons, vertical or horizontal stabilizers, or the rudder, you have the electric current that moves through the wires to the actuators.

The actuators are controlled either by the pilot by manual operation or the computer to the control surfaces actuator ( I am sure they have some kind of redundancy in the systems ).

In Boeing's philosophy though, they went the conservative root and still left it up to the pilot in the end , the control and judgment up to the pilot.

[ChefKeith]

MS Windoze???

Captian on intercom: "everbody please recline your seatbacks fully and then return it to the upright position and let's see if this thing will reboot that way"

[nightdriver]

"777's are not fly by wire, are they? I thought Boeing was against fly by wire."

I thought the 757, the 767, AND the 777 were all fly-by-wire. Meaning electrical servos run the hydraulic actuators of the flight control surfaces rather than cables from the pilot's controls.

I have ultimate quantities more trust in a well-trained pilot than some silly computer that can and does hiccup for no known reason.

[Nathan Zachary]

They just flew over someone flying their RC airplane.