The tool who described the NG as a
MK 1 cortina....with a Mondeo Panel
is a twit with no idea. I think Flight International published his letter just to embarrass him publicly.
The NG features, among other things,
a new wing,
new engine (new model of the CFM56),
FADEC,
full EFIS,
strengthened fuselage,
wing-body strake,
higher tail with modified rudder and digital yaw damper,
digital anti-skid,
longer main gear to avoid tail-strike,
higher ceiling,
higher cruise speed,
higher MTOW,
lower takeoff/approach speeds and
lower fuel burn.
He obviously flies the bang-bus and thinks that's the way ahead...
He obviously has no idea the
outside of the "Mondeo panel" hasn't changed very much for reasons of type commonality.
The 787 doesn't have a side-stick because the 777 doesn't have a side-stick. Commonality again, you see. Mixed fleet flying.
The 777 doesn't havbe a side-stick because the fat, crusty old farts at United who got involved in design feedback complained it wasn't manly enough with a "faggoty side-stick".
"Only Bang-Bus poofters use a gay little side-stick," they said, "And hold it with two fingers, as though they have their hand on another man's shlong..."
So Boeing, much to their later chagrin, elected to listen to them and go with a yoke.
No hosties on the laps for Boeing pilots for the foreseeable future.