Originally Posted by jagbn

OK, ayecarumba, I'll bite.

You state, "[Langewieshce's] opinion: Sully & Skiles deserve none of the credit for carrying out one of the few successful ditchings in history, the computer deserves the glory."

I pulled out my copy of "Fly by Wire" last night. I skimmed basically the entire book. I could find nothing remotely approaching your assertion. Instead, I found several instances of Langewiesche effusively praising the crew. Perhaps you could quote to me the exact language where you contend Langewiesche throws Sullenberger and Skiles under the bus.

As far as throwing his ass in the box with someone he's never flown with, etc., you do realize that Langewiesche was once an airline pilot?

I will agree with you that Langewiesche was a bit over-the-top in praise of the Airbus design philosophy. He does address the paradox of the "uncrashable" airplane having a mishap record no better than the 737 in the chapter "The Paradox" in "Fly by Wire."

Once the truth of AF447 came out, it conflicted rather uncomfortably with some of Langewiesche's praise of the Airbus system. I would have liked to see him address that issue more forthrightly in his most recent article. Instead, he avoided it.

As for AF447, the aircraft suffered a simple, basic, easily handled malfunction. I've had two airspeed indicator failures, both in Navy airplanes, which is nearly a non-event in AOA-gauge-equipped aircraft. All the Air France crew had to do was hold the same attitude and power setting they'd been staring at for over an hour and everything would have been fine. The fact that these three Air France pilots crashed a perfectly good airplane after a transitory airspeed indicator failure is outrageous, and in my opinion every pilot should be ashamed of the performance of this crew. The airspeed indicator started working again within a couple minutes; the criminally incompetent pilots held the airplane in a full stall for many minutes thereafter, crashing a perfectly good airplane.

Why this mishap has not prompted the FAA and other regulatory agencies (or airlines themselves) to mandate AOA gauges in commercial airliners beggars belief. AOA is the single most direct and valuable measure of the aerodynamic health of the wing, and commercial aircraft hide that information from the pilots. I have no idea why. It's idiotic.