News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Investigation Preliminary Report. Parent comment

Re:Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Investigation Preliminary Report by fgonzag on Thursday April 04, 2019 @02:48PM (#19575766)
But being able to actually utilize all your control surfaces without electrical power must be a basic requirement.

They could make the trim control wheel mechanically assisted, for example (since there are cases where electronic trim control is required because because of the amount of force needed to turn the wheel)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX Investigation Preliminary Report by Rooster61 on Thursday April 04, 2019 @03:13PM (#19576023)
> They could make the trim control wheel mechanically assisted

I'd imagine it already IS mechanically assisted. There is a limit to how much you can amplify a pilot's input mechanically, and I'd imagine the load on the aircraft exceeded the amount of amplification needed.

I.e. your car has power steering, so the car manually adds power to the turn based on the user's input. That doesn't mean that something in the road can't override the input of both the driver and power steering and jerk the wheel.

[ Parent | on HN ]