Richard de Crespigny

So they made a deal with Boeing that if we don't want to have to do a differences course for all our pilots, so we want the same pilots to get one course of 737 for all those versions since 1967.

And we don't want to have a differences course.

That gave pressure for Boeing to not change the cockpit.

It meant they really couldn't bring in fly-by-wire benefits, because if they did, they'd have to change the cockpit.

There'd be a differences course.

So there was actually a lot of pressure by Southwest Airlines to have Boeing do what they did, which was, in retrospect...

Terrible.

But in any business, it's not right.

You should get rid of the old tech and bring in the new.

Airbus brought in fly-by-wire in 1984.

Fly-by-wire, in your car, you have your accelerator pedal.

You push it down and linkages, bell cranks, and cables move from that accelerator pedal, go to the carburetor to let more fuel into the car.

It's fine.

But actually, when they built the Concorde, the fuselage stretches one foot in the cruise because the aircraft gets so hot.

So linkages and cables can't stretch one foot.

So when they built the Concorde, they said, we can't use these old systems.

So they built a digital... Actually, no, it was an analog fly-by-wire.

So you have a sensor on the accelerator pedal, the sensor signal that goes...

to a distant actuator that will move to change the fuel.

Opens and closes a valve.