[Spktyr]

Nope. The Airbus design philosophy is "pilots are all idiots, and we know better than the man in the seat does." The flight envelope is preprogrammed, the control limits are hardcoded and do not include allowances for hard evasive manuvers. There is no override, there are no manual controls, if the computer goes out the plane falls out of the sky.

The Gimli Glider would not have been the amazing event that it ended up being if it had been an AIrbus.

[AGreatPer]

"control limits are hardcoded and do not include allowances for hard evasive manuvers."

Recently on a 737 we were landing into Logan (Boston). We did a fly around because there was a flock of geese in our way. Are you saying that Airbus would not do that?

[drc43]

"The Airbus design philosophy is "pilots are all idiots"

See it here:
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/Airbus320_trees.mpg

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

From what I understand, the Airbus is a "fly-by-wire" aircraft. There is no direct pilot cable control of moveable wing and tail surfaces. The computer flies it. No computer, no control.

[Larry Lucido]

Interesting news report with video of the "Gimli Glider" here. Apparently the pilot converted kg's to lb's, and had half as much fuel as he thought he did. D'oh.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-240-1155-20/that_was_then/life_society/gimli_glider

[PeterPuck]

how about the Air Transat flight that was forced to glide into the Azores in 2001... that was an Airbus A330

Just because Airbus is not an American made plane does not make it a fine aircraft.

Sounds like a bunch of kids arguing - my team is better than your team with absolutely no interest in the facts.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

That sounds so French of them

" The AirRUST (EU's/French ) design ( elitists ) philosophy is " ( Voters ) Pilots are all idiots, and we know ( what is good for them ) better than the man ( voter ) in the ( Tax payer ) seat does "