Originally Posted by Typhoonpilot
McDonnell Douglas
I think the best flying jet aircraft of all time would have to be between the DC-9-10 series and the 727. I haven't flown the 757, but everyone who has raves about it. I thought the 737 was pretty sloppy , but my experience is limited to -300 and 400s. The MD-80 was nice, but you had to be pretty experienced in it to really fly it well. The 777 isn't really great to fly from a hand flying standpoint nor would any of the fly-by-wire Airbii as it is all artificial feel. Personally I prefer the real thing and nothing can ever beat cable and pulleys for pure feel.
If you are talking about technology than the 777 is the hands down winner. The Honeywell Pegasus FMS and electronic checklist plus very user friendly design make it dead simple to fly. If you want to get into design philosophy arguments than Boeing is, again, the hands down winner. Modern Boeings will warn you when you are going to exceed a limit, but if you still want to exceed it you are able to.
TP
The A340 should be just as advanced as the 777. I have not had the chance to see the 777 in action though. What kind of new systems does the 777 have? Hopefuly I will be able to get in one of their sims as soon as AirCanada starts recieving their 777 orders.
But I still think Airbus is the winner, boeing is just starting to perfect the technology airbus developed in the mid 80's.