S-92 Tip Speed
A bit afield of a tip speed discussion, but there were, as you might imagine, some "spirited " meetings about digital engine control configuration early in the S-92 design phase. There were the S-76B configuration advocates, wherein you had a dual digital control with a water-faucet type mechanical backup. Had one VP who adhered to the fly-by-wire philosophy which proclaims that fly-by-wire is acceptable as long as the wires go thru the center of the push-pull tubes!
But the research exposed that there were zero instances of the S-76B ever reverting to manual-only ( what I called water-faucet a moment ago ) control. Further, the reliability numbers of the digital side of the T-700 control system were superior to the mechanical side. We also looked into the dual digital control situation in the B-777 and concluded that the mechanical backup was both unnecessary but would also complicate the design so that the final reliability would in fact be lower.
All that said, there were some interesting get-togethers! My recollection is, that during the entire S-92 development and certification program, we had four channel reversions.
Technology has certainly advanced. For the longer-in-tooth, remember the SH-3d in the late 1960's with GE's first electronic analog supervisory control called PMS ( Power Management System, not what you all were thinking )? That system gathered a track record of failure modes that soon led to a bright red PMS-OFF switch on the cyclic.