Originally Posted by
Graybeard
Going back to my original question: "When was the last time an airliner was lost in flight test? There haven't been an A300, A310, A320, A340 or A380, have there? You have to go back to the 707 or BAC1-11.
Yes, because both were significant advances in technology and design (swept-wing jet transport in the case of the former, early T-tail design in the case of the latter). Boeing basically rested on their laurels and designed more-of-the-same-only-slightly-different right the way up to the late '70s, and even then the 767 and 757 were slight evolutionary changes. The gradient from that to the A32/3/4/80 was as much of a leap as the 707 was over the Stratoliner in many respects. Boeing's engineers themselves admitted that had the Comet not blazed the trail, they'd have probably made the same mistakes with the overrotation and metal fatigue aspects of the design with the 707. It seems every manufacturer learns the hard way at least once and Airbus is no exception.
But again there is no evidence that sidestick philosophy or mode confusion played any part in AF447, despite the number of people wishing it was so (I note CONF again forgetting that the PF was well aware of the occupant of the LHS taking control, which is one of the few things we do know about the flight deck atmosphere), so all we're doing is rehashing old arguments that are essentially a matter of personal preference and have no relevance to the subject at hand.
In fact, with the autopilot known to be offline in the case of AF447, it is a certain fact that the A330 test flight accident has no relevance, as it was an autoflight mode confusion problem - and one that was remedied long ago to boot!