Originally Posted by
whenrealityhurts
I am curious...are there any mechanical attitude instruments in the Airbus or is it all tube displays.
I ponder a cockpit where all the tv screens go out, lighting strike...what would the pilot have for attitude reference?
That's a question I've asked myself a few times, too.
The present-day
standby instruments use small LCD screens too, which still rely on some kind of separate secure electrical supply, and presumably so does the attitude reference (gyro of some type).
I 'grew up' in the days of the "SFENA", a small 3" standby horizon with its own hi-speed hi-inertia gyro, that would run for several minutes after a total loss of power. The display was purely mechanical, so the attitude information was still displayed.
At some point it equipped about 70% of the world's airliners, including Concorde and 747.
And it's credited with being the ultimate aid in a few OMG situations, and bringing the plane home (a Caravelle with a total electrical failure - or lightning strike, I'm not sure - comes to mind).
I worked for SFENA, but not in that division. I saw the first LCD display standby horizons arrive, but never got the answers to their reliabilty compared to the old "spinning top" version in extreme situations.