Digital fly-by-wire airliner (Airbus A320)
Mandos de vuelo eléctricos digitales (Airbus A320)
- Date
- 1987 · confidence high
- Place
- Airbus, Toulouse, France
- Credited to
- Airbus (Bernard Ziegler); NASA's digital fly-by-wire F-8 (1972) as a forerunner
- Field
- Movement
What it is
The first commercial aircraft in which the pilot commands computers that move the control surfaces and apply flight-envelope protections. It is the standard for all modern aircraft.
What it led to
- The automation of flight and the reduction of accidents
- Debates over pilot authority versus the computer (737 MAX accidents)
- Lighter, more efficient aircraft
Built on
- Concorde supersonic airliner1969
- onboard computers
- Apollo (lunar module fly-by-wire)
Made possible
- autonomous aircraft
- passenger drones (eVTOL)