So, GusNSpot, do you work for or at Boeing or don’t you?
He’s retired.
Actually there are quite a few systems on airplanes that run Windows although most are related to cabin entertainment systems or maintenance type devices.
Nothing even remotely flight critical though.
Didn’t Airbus loose a contract to the RAF because they still haven’t finished that replacement for the C-130 that was supposed to be ready a few years ago? ISTR that the RAF ended up getting 4 or 5 Boeing C-17s instead for their airlifting needs.
Back to the topic, I think it’s really funny that this topic popped up after I was watching Pirates of Silicon Valley the other day. There’s one scene where Bill Gates, still a young aspiring programmer trying to pull together a business deal with IBM, convinces the people at the ticket counter that a hacker could make the airplane crash if he didn’t get on the plane with the computer program punchcards he was carrying in his briefcase… and once they got the plane back, he couldn’t find his boarding pass :wally
The navy pilots I knew said “if it says ‘Grumman’ on the pedals it better say ‘Martin-Baker’ on the seats”
racer72, thanks for the information but does’t the 777 use fly by wire while the 737 has conventional assisted controls? I know that Boeing implements the cockpit controls differently than Airbus but isn’t there always the potential, however unlikely, that a hacked computer can take control from the pilot?
Don’t know about big iron, but on smaller stuff, if all else fails, the pilot can simply over power the auto-pilot. In a true fly by wire with no mechanical link at all, then you have a different ball game but they do put in a lot of redundancy to enable the pilot to get the auto pilot off if he needs it off.
I don’t work for Boeing, never did either. Just been flying a long time, Been in aviation a long time, have had an A&P ticket for a long time, have 10,000 + hrs PIC, ( fun flying, pipeline patrol flying, Part135 flying, check hauling, which is a world unto it self, and lots and lots of aerial mapping. Thermography work and a lot of oddball stuff, some instruction, which I was not really good at, I don’t take stupidity and smart mouth well, ) over 34 types of aircraft flown, owned airplanes, taught at Spartan School of Aeronautics for a while in the late 60’s, have a sister who was one of the many feature writers for Flying Magazine many years ago, brother is an aeronautical engineer, My Dad, Mom, Older sister and myself are or were pilots, + an ex-wife a
nd a lot of my kin folks and we are an aviation orientated family and I do try to keep up even if I can’t afford much more that a Bi-annual every 2 years now.
I’m kind of set in my ways now and I realize that. Some things that work well should not be messed with unless they really do ALL the homework on the change and that is my complaint about Airbus…, they don’t do that well IMO. Plus, I need somebody to gripe about cause I’m a cranky old man now… Bawahahahaa
If Will Smith can bring down aliens from space with a computer virus, why is it so hard to believe it’s possible with planes?
Well, to be fair, he didn’t. Jeff Goldblum did. ;j
The 777 is fly by wire.
I worked in the 777 PFC (Primary Flight Computer) group.
It just can’t happen.
I’m not saying it could be hacked trivially. It would take at least a ninja suit, a trapeze and Halle Berry in a string bikini to do it but any general purpose computer that can be programmed can be hacked.