AF 447 Thread No. 7

[Machinbird]

Originally Posted by RR_NDB

Why A/P and A/THR are not "System designed" to "return" to the scene after an anomaly (like briefly UAS) in this planes?

Graceful Degradation is an important concept, but you have to remember how quickly stuff can happen in an aircraft. First, that aircraft is changing position at the rate of ~ 8NM / minute and roll and pitch rates can also be pretty high, so anything more than a very brief interruption can cause too much variation for a reasonable reset.

Best approach would be to approximate what a human pilot should do under the circumstances and figure out how to automate those actions.

The good thing is that the computer can generally size up a situation in less than a second and apply all the corrective steps. No need to level off after a UAS during climb, just set a pitch attitude appropriate to the altitude and thrust available and keep on trucking after advising the crew of the problem..