Whilst airliner configurations have been refined throughout history, the commercial risk implicit in changing to a more radical layout has been the grit which has stopped evolution for several decades. It is now almost 30 years since the world's first 'control configured vehicle' (General Dynamics XF-16) took to the air and began a revolution in military aviation. Nevertheless, it was a conventional layout. The radical, and almost invisible, change was an electronic flight control system that dispensed with mechanical linkages, bestowing the ability to tame what would otherwise be an aircraft with tetchy, if not downright impossible, longitudinal stability. The concept is popularly known now as fly-by-wire (FBW) and is the cornerstone of modern military aircraft design concepts, from trainers to stealth aircraft. It was inevitable that civil aircraft manufacturers would look closely at what FBW would offer in its own products. The implementation on a conventional airliner creates an aircraft with 4-8% better fuel economy and the aircraft is lighter and uses less fuel for a given task. Airbus capitalised on this in the A320 as far back as 1986, but took a sensibly cautious approach, letting the system enhance natural stability. In subsequent generation aircraft - right up the current A380 - this philosophy has been maintained.
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