The Dangers of Automation in Airliners: Accidents Waiting to Happen

Copertina anteriore
Air World, 24 nov 2020 - 288 pagine
The award-winning journalist delves “into the confluence of modern airplane technology and pilot behavior to probe how and why flight disasters happen” (BookTrib).

Aviation automation has been pushed to its limits, with pilots increasingly relying on it. Autopilot, autothrottle, autoland, flight management systems, air data systems, inertial guidance systems. All these systems are only as good as their inputs which, incredibly, can go rogue. Even the automation itself is subject to unpredictable failure.

And what of the pilots? They began flight training with their hands on the throttle and yoke, and feet on the rudder pedals. Then they reached the pinnacle of their careers—airline pilot—and suddenly they were going hours without touching the controls other than for a few minutes on takeoff and landing. Are their skills eroding? Is their training sufficient to meet the demands of today’s planes?

The Dangers of Automation in Airliners delves deeply into these questions. You’ll be in the cockpits of the two doomed Boeing 737 MAXs, the Airbus A330 lost over the South Atlantic, and the Bombardier Q400 that stalled over Buffalo. You’ll discover exactly why a Boeing 777 smacked into a seawall, missing the runway on a beautiful summer morning. And you’ll watch pilots battling—sometimes winning and sometimes not—against automation run amok. This book also investigates the human factors at work. You’ll learn why pilots might overlook warnings or ignore cockpit alarms. You’ll observe automation failing to alert aircrews of what they crucially need to know while fighting to save their planes and their passengers.

The future of safe air travel depends on automation. This book tells its story.

Dall'interno del libro

Sommario

Not So Complicated
Chapter 25 Bias and Surprise LIFUS Chapter 26 I Have
Perfect Storm
Airliner
Boeing
Brutal Business
Airbus
FlybyWire

Lost Decades
Progress
Wings
Control Surfaces
Autos
Landing
Hands
Sniffles
One Switch
Icing
Chain Links
The Situation
Hazardous States
Engine Gauges
Landing Gear Down
San Francisco
Line in the
Cleared to Land
Guardrails
Chapter 34
Runaway Trim
Lion
MCAS
Ethiopian
ADIRU
Captains Choice
Landing Gear
Airmanship
South Atlantic
Airspeed
No Excuse
Hippocratic Oath
ECAM
Seatbelts
PanPan
Copyright

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Informazioni sull'autore (2020)

Jack Hersch is a journalist and expert in the field of distressed and bankrupt companies. He has served as a public company board member, and has guest-lectured in the business schools of M.I.T., U.S.C., and U.C. Berkeley, among others. "The Dangers of Automation in Airliners" is his second book, following “Death March Escape” winner of the 2019 Spirit of Anne Frank Human Writes Award. He and his wife live in New York City.

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