Originally Posted by
Litespud
Haptic feedback is already a feature of many electronic controls. My brother flew fully fly-by-wire Airbuses - pretty sure the little joysticks has artificial "mechanical feedback" built in - I'll ask him.
They don't.
I fly an Airbus and it's what I miss the most from a "normal" airplane. You lose the "feel."
Luckily (or sadly) we don't race Airbuses and don't need to take them to their limits. The lack of feel however, is a bit of a pain during gusty/crosswind landings though. The Boeings in this aspect are more "pilot friendly"
Along the lines of this thread, the Airbus also has electronic braking... so you do put your life in the hands of computer braking more than you'd think
There are 2 redundancies built in. Again, because of lack of feel, if you lose the computer, it can be easy to lock up the brakes if you switch to manual (you have the other guy monitor the brake pressure indicator). The last option is the emergency/parking brake (which, ironically enough), is also electronically controlled.
Interestingly, FBW and autobraking wouldn't exist if they weren't the overall safer (and more efficient) option. However, again, the use case is what's key.
Maybe electronic assists for safer braking for the average cyclist, but manual for the competitive crowd?
I also watch a lot of Formula 1 racing and they have BBW but only for the rear brakes... the front brakes are conventional (and work as a backup).