- Could Boeing switch to side sticks for its next jet? As all of us aviation geeks know,
Boeing builds airliners with proper yokes and Airbus builds them with side sticks. But could Boeing be about to switch sides? Could the next Boeing jet actually have side sticks? Stay tuned. Many people, myself included,
have commented on how Boeing and Airbus controls compare against each other. Of course, Airbus also started out with yokes on its A300 and A310 models, but when it introduced
the fly-by-wire primary controls, it also brought in the side sticks. And that happened in the late 1980s
with the introduction of the Airbus A320 family. Now you can find many articles
and online discussion groups arguing the merits of one system over the other,
usually comparing the Boeing 737s with the Airbus A320. But, in general, these discussions tend
to be about fly-by-wire, not necessarily about the actual cockpit controls. Now, there is a lot to discuss
when it comes to fly-by-wire, but it's probably a moot point for this video. And that's because, realistically,
we can safely assume that Boeing's next aircraft
will be a fly-by-wire design. Remember that the last two aircraft that Boeing designed from scratch
were the 777 and the 787 and both of them are also fly-by-wire. As we've seen in previous videos,
whenever the next Boeing midsize aircraft comes, it will face stiff competition from Airbus. And this is because Airbus could rewing
and resize its Airbus A321 faster than Boeing could launch and put
to market this all new aircraft. And if you wanna know more about that,
check out this video that I recently did about it. The point is, though that fly-by-wire
does have some advantages when it comes to weight reduction of an aircraft
and also the distribution of this weight. Boeing is going to want to ensure
that its brand new design is as competitive as possible,
and they will definitely use every technological trick in the book to achieve that. Fly-by-wire is something that they already know
how to do and will therefore definitely use it. However, Boeing's current fly-by-wire aircraft,
the 777 and the 787, both have yokes, not side sticks. Boeing has been quite vocal
about the advantages of having yokes in the cockpit even for fly-by-wire aircraft. You see, yokes are mechanically linked
to each other so that one pilot can see and feel the inputs of the other pilot. And that's something that we, Boeing pilots, really appreciate as it gives us
a direct visual and sensory warning if the other pilot is doing something they shouldn't. I personally think that it's really helpful
when training new cadets, since I can immediately see if they are, for example,
over-correcting during a manoeuvre. In practice, it turns out that it's very difficult
to have such mechanical links with side sticks. And there has been some tragic accidents
where aircraft with side sticks have been out of trim after reverting to a different control law
without much indication of this to the pilots. In an aircraft with conventional control
like the Boeing 737 or even a Cessna 172, the pilots will feel that this is happening through the controls and
they will also be able then to trim the aircraft accordingly. Of course, these are issues that Airbus
and other aircraft manufacturers have thought about and tested extensively. And there are procedures to mitigate
against issues like this like aural and visual alert, for example. Airbus spent a lot of time developing
its fly-by-wire system and side stick controls and with time, its procedures to mitigate
any issues have gotten better and better, making sure that the pilots can now pick up
on these warnings during any type of emergency. So if Boeing has stuck to yokes until now,
even for its newest, latest technology designed, why would it consider a switch to side sticks and are they doing that? Well, I will tell you everything about this
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that seem to eliminate most if not all of their drawbacks. Again, these potential issues
are the dual-input problem, the out-of-trim problem and also the fact
that the response of the controls should change when the aircraft
is flying at different speeds to give the pilots a bit better feel. This newer side stick designs
aren't just sitting on the drawing board or in development labs. There are currently aircraft out there
that are already flying with newer, very interesting side sticks
who are referred to as active side sticks. The first aircraft to use them
are Gulfstreams latest business jet models. In this aircraft, Gulfstream uses a system
designed by BEA, a company who already had experience making side sticks for military jets. In these new Gulfstream jets,
there is no mechanical link between the two sticks in the cockpit. However, the side sticks themselves
have electric servo mechanisms. These mechanisms link the two sticks electronically, so when the pilot moves one of them,
the other side stick moves the same way. If one pilot touches his side stick
while the other is flying and starts making inputs, then both pilots will feel resistance in their controls, just as if the two were mechanically linked. That's basically mimicking the feel
that Boeing pilots will be used to with their yokes. All of this might sound a bit familiar to you;
if you're a computer gamer; you will probably have heard of force-feedback joysticks. These uses similar principles. And by the way, don't call the side stick joysticks because there are some pilots out there
who might be really sensitive to that. But if you think that those gaming devices
were the first application of this technology well then that's not entirely true. Professional full flight simulators
for aircraft like the Boeing 737 has been using this type of technology for decades. Of course, the yokes in these simulators
are often mechanically linked just like in the real thing. But to get certified for training,
these simulators must emulate the aircraft including the external forces
on the controls, which they do using a system called control loading,
which is similar to that kind of system that you have in the force feedback joysticks. Anyway, going back to real aircraft
and Boeing's future choices with controls, the good news for side stick fans, that is, is that there isn't just one company
making active side sticks today. In addition to Gulfstream supplier BAE,
there is also Raytheon. Now Raytheon is an American company
who now owns a subsidiary in France originally called Ratier-Figeac. This is the same company that
has made the side sticks that Airbus uses. Today or perhaps we should say until recently,
this company was also supplier to Russian Sukhoi, providing the side sticks for its Superjet
and also, they supplied the Russian Irkut with side sticks for the MS-21
which you might know as the MC-21. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
the future of the MC-21 and the Sukhoi Superjet are quite uncertain, but interesting for the story
is that the configuration of the MC-21 which Russian authorities certified
at the end of 2021 had active side sticks. If the MC-21 actually enters service,
it will become the first airliner to have active side sticks as standard. So could the next Boeing aircraft use
this active side sticks as well? Could this development finally
convince Boeing to change its mind? Well, active side sticks seems to solve
the dual input and out-of-trim issues we discussed before. They can also vary their resistance
to pilot inputs to account for aerodynamic forces at different speeds. Plus the sticks can move when the aircraft
is in autopilot, visually showing the pilots what the aircraft systems are doing,
just like the yokes do and, therefore, satisfy Boeing's pilot-centred philosophy. Plus side sticks have other advantages,
which is why Airbus and others use them in the first place. Compared to yokes, they save
a good amount of weight and it's just easier to install two sides sticks in the cockpit
than two floor-mounted yokes along with all of the necessary
mechanical connections that they need. In terms of ergonomics, side sticks
may also allow pilots to reach other things in the cockpit a bit easier. For example, Gulfstream
took advantage of the side sticks to put touchscreen multifunction displays in front of the pilots,
which is hard to do with a yoke. And, crucially, as Airbus pilots love to point out, with side sticks, you get room for a table. However, there is another caveat here that Boeing will have to
consider before abandoning its yokes. And this has to do with pilot training. Even though the Boeing 777
and the 787 entered service decades apart, they have the same type rating,
meaning that pilots who trained on one type can fly on the other type
with just a shorter difference training. In theory, Boeing could try to give
its next aircraft design the same type rating as these previous jets,
even though the new aircraft is likely going to be a smaller jet. Now, this wouldn't be unprecedented. For example, the Boeing 757, a single-aisle aircraft with the same cabin width as a Boeing 737, uses the same type rating
as the twin-aisle wide body Boeing 767. We really don't know how big
Boeing's next aircraft will be and if it really will be practical to give it
the same type rating as something as big as the Boeing triple 777X, for example. But even if Boeing decides against this,
there are more type rating considerations that could keep them from making such a change. For example, Airbus has a common type rating
for its four A320 single-aisle variants, the A318, the 319, the 320 and the 321. Airbus also has a separate common type rating for it's A330, 340 and 350 wide bodies. But even though the single-aisles
and twin-aisles have separate type ratings, pilots can benefit from shorter
or abbreviated training courses when moving from one to the other
because of the general similarity between the types and the cockpit layout. So if Boeing decides to do something similar to ease training requirements
for its airline customers, when its crew switches from one type to the other, it will want to limit the cockpit layout changes as much as possible. And, obviously, giving pilots a side stick
instead of a nice big yoke is a pretty big change. On the other hand though,
Boeing has gotten a lot of criticism in the recent past for making design choices
that focus a bit too much on training requirements instead of innovation,
even for its newest aircraft, the Boeing 777X. So Boeing's choice on side stick versus yokes might seem obvious, but market demands
could be the final deciding factor. Finally, it's worth noting that even though
they don't have side sticks, Boeing 777s and 787s can actually
have some side-stick-like problems. In April this year, we saw a strange incident
involving the flight crew of a Boeing 777, Air France Flight 11. The incident happened as the crew were on final approach
into Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Now, this is a very recent incident,
and we don't have a final report on it but the French investigation authority,
the BEA, has released a statement already. It seems like the two pilots believed
that the aircraft was fighting their inputs, but according to the BEA's release,
it shows that the two pilots were actually fighting each other
and their yokes desynchronised. This is only possible if the pilots exert
a force of 50 pounds or 22.7 kilos on the controls. When it comes, the final report
will tell us exactly what happened here. And it's likely that I'm going to feature
that over on the Mentour Pilot channel. But for now, this shows
that even without side sticks, it isn't impossible to have
dual-input issues even with yokes. In any case, analysts seem to agree
that Boeing really needs to launch its next aircraft soon,
most likely in the next two years if it is to remain competitive with Airbus. But could it decide to switch its control setup? What do you think? Will the advantages of side sticks
in ergonomics, weight savings, et cetera, change Boeing's decision? Let me know below. Now, check out this video next, which I think that you're
gonna find really interesting or check out this one. If you wanna support this type of content,
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and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
