article_snippet: What you will also see is there is lots of discussion, and sadly lots of misunderstanding concerning how computers and how pilots 'fly' the plane. '
article_snippet: But in the cockpit the cockpit represented a revolution when the cockpit began service in 1988 as the first 'fly-by-wire' jetliner relying on computers to fly within safe limits and replacing the usual control yoke with a side-stick, inspired by the F-16 fighter.
article_snippet: The increased reliance on computers, though increasingly common across the industry, prompted a bitter debate between Airbus and pilot unions over whether too much control was being taken out of human hands.