Argument with friend: Passenger airplanes haven't progressed much in 40 years?

[gsellis]

Go sit in the cockpit of a Boeing 727, then go visit the cockpit of the 787 dreamliner. Planes 40 years ago could not land themselves.

But I must add that a lot of passenger planes built 40 years ago are still in service. Many are nearing the end of their useful life because the number of cycles (pressurized/depressurized) is getting into the unsafe zone. Many will still fly a lot more years for smaller carriers or converted to freight where they will only under go 1-3 cycles per day at most.

Planes from 40 years ago (on the drawing board) could land by themselves. An L-1011 could. It had its first flight in 1970 and had high bypass Rolls-Royce engines.

Has aviation made any giant leaps? I don't think so. Thrust vectoring? That came from Marine pilots figuring out how to escape in a dog fight in their AV-8's (Harrier). The F-117 and stealth was on the drawing board in 1976, so inside 40 years, but close. But the Blackbird hinted at that. The HUD started the move to glass cockpits, and those have been evolving since even the 50's with the gun sight on the Sabrejet. Supercruise is a breakthrough. Fly-by-wire, no as it was developed for the lunar lander in the 60's. The F-16's had the flight surface control computer to stabilize it. TCAS came out as a mandate after the PSA mid-air in 79? I think it was on the drawing boards, but it and its children are newer than 40 years.