Lemurian =
"Well, just have a look at the AC DC-8 in Toronto when the crew thought wise to deploy the [b]ground spoilers/b] on landing....109 fatalities...
A quick research on the various accident data bases will show that cables and pullies were not that safe.
Now came the 320 and its followers along and aviation became another proposal altogether and the opponents became a lot more vocal (That thing is going to take away our skills...we're now truly out of the loop...)
Yeah ! Sure !
But people have a rather short memories : the so-called "hard limits" they were so against would have saved quite a few lives ; just two instances :
EAL DC-8 on a degraded stability in turbulence just after take-off...58 fatalities (25/2/64)
JAL DC-8 in Moscow, with a "supercritical AoA" ... 61 fatalities (28/11/72) "
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Toronto: nothing to do with the fact that it was cable operated.
Lake Pontchartrain: same thing.
Moscow: Don't have a report.
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".....DC-4 engine : valves here, valves there, a baro tube pushing a membrane which in turn pushes a rod that actuates the opening of yet another valve...and what did the "poppet valve do ?". They were brilliant pieces of engineering (just have a look of how the constant speed of a propeller was achieved !), but may I just remind you that not one of these marvels could qualify for the shortest ETOPS performance (If I remember well, the most beautiful of these machines, the Connie was also called "the best Trimotor over the Atlantic")."
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Ah.....brings tears to me eyes! Speeder spring and poppet valve. How 'bout the A, B, C, and D chambers?
The fact that the Connie MIGHT have been referred to as you say had nothing to do with the fact that it was cable operated.
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"On the other hand, I can't help but feel a bit sad that an accident that would have been avoided on a FBW equipped airliner happened on an MD-80 on August 16, 2005 with the loss of all aboard."
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If you're referring to West Caribbean Airways MD-82, I don't see where being cable operated had anything to do with that. They lost both engines. And, I'm not familiar with the MD-82 and whether it is controlled the same as the DC-8.