No-Hoper....
You have truely missed the point here....
I'm not advicating putting an FE into the A380 flight deck, I'm advicating changing the A380 flight deck to suit a flight engineer, as it should have been in the original design!
As in the adding of the FE into the B767 flight deck some years ago, it didn't work simply because the flight deck was not designed for it, and was never going to work.
Having the FE simply monitoring a couple of screens is not going to work, he needs to have indications of the various system controls, together with suitable ways of controlling those systems, in effect, sidelining the computer from total contol.
That's the problem, the computerized system operation, with no common sense or forethought being applied.
The chances of this happening, virtually zero, the manufacturers have been convinced the computerized systems control is the way to go, and changing it now, unfortunately is beyond financial reality...see, there it is again, flight safety dependant on financial capability.
I personally would be absolutely overjoyed to glance into the A380 (or any other large pax jet) flight deck on the way onboard (sometimes the door is left slightly ajar), and see a modernized version of a B747-300 flight deck!!!
But I remain afraid those two things will never happen, me onboard, and a real flight deck!
Cheers,
EW73