100% of the military jets built nowadays are Fly By Wire because they are designed to be unstable by default and therefore need computers to control them - since no human could possibly do so.
Furthermore, aircraft nowadays are built with lifting bodies - with enough thrust, their fuselage can provide the lift that a missing wing cannot.
This situation, where an F15 pilot lost his wing, was resolved by the pilot successfuly landing the aircraft. It turns out that the airflow on the fuselage was able to provide the lift needed to keep the plane flying. The F-18 and the F15 have such large wing surface areas, that even losing one wing shouldn't bring them down if computers counteract the new physics.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
100% of the military jets built nowadays are Fly By Wire because they are designed to be unstable by default and therefore need computers to control them - since no human could possibly do so.
Furthermore, aircraft nowadays are built with lifting bodies - with enough thrust, their fuselage can provide the lift that a missing wing cannot.
This situation, where an F15 pilot lost his wing, was resolved by the pilot successfuly landing the aircraft. It turns out that the airflow on the fuselage was able to provide the lift needed to keep the plane flying. The F-18 and the F15 have such large wing surface areas, that even losing one wing shouldn't bring them down if computers counteract the new physics.