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> Imagine if all the car companies were competing against eachother on tech for brakes, seatbelts or how a steering wheel works.

Except for the seatbelt, That’s how it went. Especially with Airbus and Boeing who have chosen completely different approaches to flight safety system.




And there were a lot of rival seat belt designs until Volvo hit on a really good one that's been the standard since https://www.arnoldclark.com/newsroom/265-why-volvo-gave-away...


different approaches ?


IIRC, in Airbus planes the pilot has no direct control. He gives inputs which are then accepted or rejected depending on what the computer thinks is safe; at take off you can pull the stick as much as you want, the computer will not let the tail hit the ground. In Boeing you have direct control but with better feedback on what’s going to happen.


What's interesting is that modern crash-rate statistics for the two companies are essentially the same, meaning there doesn't seem to be a superior choice of the two approaches


Or meaning that the machine-sourced crash rate is low enough that it's dominated by flight crew and weather factors.


It's an often repeated misconception, but in Airbus planes the pilot has full control of every single control surface of the plane. Disabling the flight enveloppe protection system is probably necessary if you want to tail strike, but it is perfectly doable.




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