Hah-I haven’t heard that one.
A related anecdote from the UH-60 basic controls design: the lead designer for the UTTAS ( original name for that competition ) was a relatively new, quite intelligent young engineer, who forced thru a design that had fixed length control rods throughout. Thats the way to save on cost and maintenance man-hours said he. Chief Engineer on the program bought in ( although the old head chief of that area in engineering was dead against ).
Scene shifts to the experimental build-up area, where the initial three prototypes were in the final stages of assembly and pre-flight test procedures. BUT…..hold on,…..we couldn’t get any of the three ships controls rigged to specification and all those fixed rods were chucked in place of adjustable rods.
As to mechanical mixing units in general: necessary in the “ old days “ in order to get decent control harmony and the top deck of the 92 is but one example of why fly by wire brings both flying qualities and safety improvements thru getting rid of all that clap-trap and the opportunities for human beings to make rigging and/or maintenance errors.
Last edited by JohnDixson; 18th Oct 2022 at 15:46.