Originally Posted by
Centaurus
The figures for full rudder travel quote above are for the A300-600. I wonder if the same figures could be valid for todays Boeing 737 or fly by wire types? Either way, it is doubtful if type rating engineering courses even mention rudder travel versus rudder pedal travel. It certainly was never covered on the Boeing 737 type rating course I did many years ago and probably not covered in current simulator training. Maybe it should be?
The
NTSB report discusses the designs used on various types. It starts on page 26 (page 40 on the PDF). If you scroll down a couple of pages, there's a table of figures.
The 737 doesn't have a rudder ratio changer like the later Boeing types. The ratio of rudder travel to pedal travel should be constant. It has what the NTSB called a force limit system. There's no specific rudder travel limit for a given airspeed, instead there's a limit on the force applied by the actuator. That means that in theory, it should be resistant, if not immune, to the type of failure that happened with AA587. If you put it in a left sideslip and then slam the rudder to the right, the rudder simply wouldn't travel as far as it usually would. The ultimate structural load wouldn't be exceeded. Apparently the DC-10 and MD-11 also use a similar design.