F15Cricket

Exactly, no one is saying it is the ONLY instrument, but combine airspeed and AOA, and a pilot can truly know how his aircraft is performing and where it is in the envelope.

And the author in the article calls it a "religion," proving his ignorance. Like USMCFLYR said, it is a religion--but only if being the best pilot you can be is important.

From my almost year now of flying 737s, I very much miss an AOA gauge, as the airspeed on final approach can vary from one flight to the next by 30 knots. Yes, we have indicators of how slow you can get, but an AOA (which the Captain has in his HUD, btw, so someone thought it was important!) would give me more SA.

Would it have prevented the Asiana 777 in SFO? Who knows, but it would have been one more indication that they might have caught to prevent getting so slow.