MaverickSawyer
Acolyte of the Probe
Found this article to be extremely interesting...
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/...37-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer
The whole article is definitely worth a read.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/...37-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer
Indeed, not letting the pilot regain control by pulling back on the column was an explicit design decision. Because if the pilots could pull up the nose when MCAS said it should go down, why have MCAS at all?
MCAS is implemented in the flight management computer, even at times when the autopilot is turned off, when the pilots think they are flying the plane. In a fight between the flight management computer and human pilots over who is in charge, the computer will bite humans until they give up and (literally) die.
Finally, there’s the need to keep the very existence of the MCAS system on the hush-hush lest someone say, “Hey, this isn’t your father’s 737,” and bank accounts start to suffer.
The whole article is definitely worth a read.