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Old 17th Jan 2015, 13:51
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PEI_3721
 
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Airbus does not currently use active force feedback; the technology was unavailable at the time of design. Airbus side-sticks have some force-feel about the null position.

Force (positon) feedback can provide an indication of the aircraft trim condition about a datum speed; this assumes that autotrim follow-up is not used.
Mechanical or similar hyd/elect technology enables cross coupled feel/positon from the other stick. However with any system the problem of a system jam/restriction has to be solved – in the stick, in the cross coupling, and elsewhere in the system. Airbus uses an elegant electronic solution, but this comes with novel aspects which require understanding – control priority/lockout. Fighter aircraft generally don't have a problem with cross coulping.

Some of the arguments for non-feedback systems assume a high degree of automatic flight, and particularly automation for speed control – where stick force is an indicator for trim speed. There was a further argument about speed displays, where if a speed tape was inferior to dials there would be greater dependency on automated speed control.

There may be some concern if sidesticks are used in smaller aircraft without A/T and/or weak speed displays; however Gulfstream’s philosophy appears to be aligned with the heavy jets, and notably their first tape speed scales were opposite to others in the industry.

Stall avoidance in FBW aircraft is part of the overall control system, but not directly associated with the stick design. Conventional systems provide some stall awareness / protection from stick position.
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