Originally Posted by drivez
... with this one in [daylight] if there was a instrument failure due to the pitot tubes being covered, at least you could have some idea of your attitude and height.
They'd already been flying for at least an hour, so it's unlikely they wouldn't have noticed that.
Originally Posted by captplaystation
...but for the moment at least I prefer stone-age connections to the bits that keep me the right way up...
The stone-age solutions were pushrods and cables to directly move the control surfaces, and maybe servotabs. No longer feasible on anything with the size and speed of an A320 or B737, leave alone anything bigger.
I have the impression you're confusing the "connections" (which in practice are as reliable as your rods and cables) with the electrical and electronic 'bits' at either end of those connections.
FBW as such is nothing new. Concorde had it forty years ago and the Vulcan even before that. Concorde had two separate "electrical signalling" (as it was then called) channels and a mechanical 'rods and cables' backup. While it was tested, and trained for, in service reversion to mechanical signalling was essentially unknown.
The difference with present-day FBW was that you still pushed and pulled a control column, turned a yoke, and pushed the pedals, and the control surface deflections were directly related to your control inputs. The autopilots moved exactly the same controls (through relay jacks) giving your direct feedback on what the autopilot was doing.
CJ