TNX, Link.
I, too, can cut some slack WRT the crew, and seems I gave them a just a tad back when we were in the height of our analysis here and found out about all the aural warnings.
I will still support my belief that a HUD would have helped as much as AoA indication. Most have some type of aircraft reference line symbol and the difference between it and the flight path marker is your "overall" AoA, right? So AF447 crew would have seen the FPM caged at the bottom of the HUD, indicating an extrmely high AoA plus the precipitous descent even with the nose pointing above the horizon.
All this available WITHOUT air data!!! All inertial. And seems like many HUD scales have an instantaneous vertical velocity option in addition to the baro VV.
All that being said, some training is required to fully exploit the display(s), though I transitioned in a minute or so when first checking out in the A-7D with the Marconi HUD.
Finally, I wholeheartedly agree with "link" about tactile feedback. In the fighter community there can be a lotta audio from systems and other pilots/control agencies. And we fly looking outside a lot more than the commercial folks. I flew two jets with pitch "limiters" - neither vibrated or anything. At max AoA the flight control system just kept you from pulling more, and the Viper stick moved too little to tell max input and was a force input, not angle/position-related. The A-7D had no limiter, but the rudder pedal(s) vibrated enuf to warn you of impending loss of control.
And good to see so many familiar folks - what a wealth of experience and knowledge here.