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You seem to be confusing a stick with mechanical linkage. Airbus aircraft don't have mechanical linkage; there is no "direct control of aircraft control surface
by _moof 5y ago
You seem to be confusing a stick with mechanical linkage. Airbus aircraft don't have mechanical linkage; there is no "direct control of aircraft control surfaces." Even in the degraded modes, you're still going through the computers. Apollo and Shuttle didn't have mechanical linkage either. So the "direct control" you're describing isn't actually direct; it's mediated by the avionics, just like Dragon.
Even without mechanical linkage, a stick makes sense in an aircraft because its surfaces and powerplants have continuous ranges. But Dragon's propulsion doesn't--it makes discrete pulses. A continuous control in Dragon wouldn't actually be able to provide output over a continuous range.
The pace of operations in space is also much, much slower than it is in the air. These aren't ace top guns doing split-second maneuvers with lightning reflexes. They aren't even airline pilots switching off the autopilot at 100' AGL. Docking is slow. Don't let the orbital velocities or the excitement of launch and reentry fool you--spaceflight is much more like sailing than it is like aviation.
In any case, the proof is in the pudding: Dragon crews train for manual docking on the (real) simulator, and it works.
- kunai 5y ago> So the "direct control" you're describing isn't actually direct; it's mediated by the avionics, just like Dragon. Very true, but I'm more describing the difference in the UX of how pilots access the avionics rather than arguing for fully manual control. Most pilots raised on FBW would find fully manual flight rather tricky (think an F-16 pilot stepping into a P-51), so I'm not suggesting we do that. It's just that Dragon's design philosophy seems like kind of an interesting departure from conventional wisdom. > The pace of operations in space is also much, much slower than it is in the air. These aren't ace top guns doing split-second maneuvers with lightning reflexes. They aren't even airline pilots switching off the autopilot at 100' AGL. Docking is slow. Don't let the orbital velocities or the excitement of launch and reentry fool you--spaceflight is much more like sailing than it is like aviation. This is a pretty solid point, and one I hadn't really considered. Leave that up to Hollywood and Kerbal Space Program for misleading everyone on how fast-paced spaceflight really is, heh!