A RAF A400 landed at the local airport and my son and I got a tour of it. Being a former C-130 mechanic, it was interesting to see a very modern turboprop cargo aircraft.
Toured an Airbus A400
- Thread starter tom slick
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The yokes are now those joy sticks? Way cool.
Yes - until you start dealing with differential input.
The Germans were refusing to take delivery of these early on citing quality issues.
It should be a fantastic aircraft proving decade of heavy hauling at a high speed and altitude with economical operation.
Let me get this straight. A joystick is used to fly it? And with the left hand only?
Yes. F-16's have had that arrangement since the 70's. Even the yuuuge Airbus A380 has side sticks. With fly by wire there's no real need for a traditional yoke.
Yeah. Joysticks for controlling large commercial aircraft have been around for nearly 40 years.
Boeing wanted to go with a joystick on the 777, which first flew in 1995, but ALPA pilots wanted a yoke.
With fly by wire (again, been around for a long time) a joystick makes sense.
I'm curious if these have the same flight characteristics as the commercial line (A320-A350...etc) where you are "managing" the aircraft rather than actually flying it (a la Boeing).
Owen Lucas
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I think it's a heads up display that projects an artificial horizon when positioned in front of you for landing in night time or foggy conditions?
This^^^. Differential inputs are one of the things that doomed AF #447, killing 228 people.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/10/air-france-flight-447-crash
Scott
MolaKule
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It’s the European equivalent to our C130 but slightly bigger and more cargo but less than the C17, yep. They wanted a prop plane for shorter takeoff/landing but they wanted to “best” the C130 for future customers.
AF 447 was much more a matter of startle effect (amygdala hijack), and poor training, than of differential input.
In the several minutes in which the airplane was stalled and descending, there was a couple seconds of dual input.
It made no real difference in the outcome.
But the whole time, the flying pilot did not understand what was happening, nor how to correct the stall.
Uh no. The co-pilot gets to use the right hand.
It’s interesting. I think many people would prefer to use one hand or the other for manipulating control equipment. Anyone training to fly these planes would be using their right hand until they were training to be captain, but now they would be using their left hand. Also, left brained people ( who tend to be right handed), would be using their left hand to operate the joy stick.) Then there are right brained people who tend to be left handed and are known to be talented arty people, who shouldn’t be flying airplanes. Flame suit on.
When you play video games with a joystick ( think MS Sidewinder) , which hand do you use?
When you play video games with a joystick ( think MS Sidewinder) , which hand do you use?
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News item: Artsy left handed co-pilot controls joystick with right hand. 
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