BOAC;
Many years ago I began watching Airbus develop the fbw technology in a state of geeky technophile awe. The shine has long since departed. Friends who have 'crossed over' tell me it is a great system. A great system when all is going well is the kindest thing I can say.
Well, I guess there is no point in continuing then. You have your mind made up re Boeings, in the face of a very successful airliner series which works very differently than the old B737.
The world is apace with technological change - has been for fourty years. Although you say philosophically that you 'firmly believe in this transitional period...', you shrink the argument to Airbus system design, resisting every point of explanation regarding the "new" technology offered by those who actually know and fly the machine.
The AF 447 accident is not going to be solved in this fashion, and the A vs B is never going to be resolved, but merely surpassed.
Thanks for the opportunity in our dialogues to do a lot of learning about both my airplanes. I loved the Boeings, Douglases and Lockheed in which I spent thousands of hours and when it came to move to the left seat on the A320 I can tell you it was very hard work and not many people knew very much about the airplane, (we didn't even have VNAV). I wouldn't take the Airbus "over" any other aircraft, (my favourite by far was the L1011-500) but it and the other two were a joy to fly and puzzle over, for fifteen years. For me the shine never left but I can understand why it might.
However, I think our concern should be for a new generation coming into the industry who "never flew an airplane" and were, as one A330 captain recently wrote about how to think of the A330, 'gamers' (not pilots), and I suspect there, we would find a few evenings over ales!