[MR2] MR2 news from Top Gear

[James]

Airplanes though, to be certified by the FAA, must have redundant systems
built in.  I'm not a flight controls guy, and don't know if their backup
system is mechanical or electronic; but it has to be there, and isolated
from the primary system.  Besides that, airplanes cost $100,000,000.

Ah, here we go.....

loss of all flight control computers could immediately render the aircraft
uncontrollable. For this reason, most fly-by-wire systems incorporate either
redundant computers (triplex, quadruplex etc), some kind of mechanical or
hydraulic backup or a combination of both. A "mixed" control system such as
the latter is not desirable and modern FBW aircraft normally avoid it by
having more independent FBW channels, thereby reducing the possibility of
overall failure to minuscule levels that are acceptable to the independent
regulatory and safety authority responsible for aircraft design, testing and
certification before operational service.

On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 12:49 PM, <bob-schultz at comcast.net> wrote:

>  I hear what you say and honestly I kind of agree with you.
> My LS430 has radar cruise but when the Yaw Sensor gets out of sync
> (something like a $600 part) the cruise dies so the drive back from Yosemite
> was a problem.  I think resetting the Yaw Sensor fixed the problem but I
> digress.
>
> Anyway, I have a friend who is a pilot and he told me that airplanes have
> been fly by wire for years and although they probably have had some teething
> problems way back then, they don't fall out of he sky that often.
>
> Bob
>