Originally Posted by
rudderrudderrat
Bernard Ziegler
*sigh*
We've already dealt with Ziegler on this very thread and others, at great length. An intelligent and gifted pilot with a flair for communication certainly, but some of the things he said weren't very diplomatic or clever*. Airbus has long since adopted a very different line, and dragging that old quote up is not unlike us software folks having a giggle at Bill Gates' alleged "640k should be enough for anyone" statement in 1981 - by which I mean it's an entertaining and valuable lesson in hubris from a point in history, but in no way relevant to the current state of affairs.
He was there to make headlines to support sales, not determine engineering practices, and as such I'm also pretty damn sure that there were Airbus engineers just as mortified by some of those statements as some pilots were.
* - As has also been stated, he is now a very elderly and frail man, so I have no wish to haul him over the coals again.