Originally Posted by
Organfreak
Though I have a functional IQ of at least 6, I refused to join Mensa. They seem to be a rather humorless, or, if in GB, humourless, and a stuck-up lot at that.
Heh - when they sent a guy to my school, he left exasperated because I kept reversing the direction of the tape recording he was making - being 6 years old I found the noises it made hilarious!
Still have managed to avoid the planes from France.
Hey now - credit where credit's due. The French may be the effective hub and project lead of Airbus, but the aircraft themselves are a joint product of France, Germany, Spain and old Blighty. Even though BAE relinquished their stake, our engineers still have a significant presence!
They may be very fine airplanes, but if nobody knows how to drive 'em when HAL goes tits-up, I'll be having a very bad day.
Lest we forget, more than 30 crews encountered this exact problem and brought their aircraft and passengers in safely. The computers in this case did not fail, and there has never to my knowledge been an accident involving a FBW Airbus (or a B777) caused by computer failure. All this accident shows us is that anyone can have a bad day at the office, and in some circumstances that leads to the worst-case scenario.