What The Tech?! Fly By Wire

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16 Dec 2025

Aviation is usually a pretty fun topic to write about. With man making the move from the Wright Flyer to the Space Shuttle to the F-22 pretty rapidly, there’s been plenty of technology that has worked behind the scenes to make aviation and transport safer and more efficient than in the earlier years.

While planes would launch with simple gauges, a throttle and rudimentary controls, now we see GPS and glass cockpit integration, improved communications and automated systems to help make flying the aircraft safer. The star of today’s article is one such system.

Fly-by-wire designs were revolutionary when they were first released, and today, they’ve grown to dominate the aviation industry, while migrating across to the automotive industry to help provide similar benefits.

Let’s take a look!

FBW & THE FADEC

If the name sounds revolutionary, that’s because in the 1980s, when it was released, it was. Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a flight control system in which a pilot’s inputs are converted into electronic signals that are transmitted to flight control computers. These will then command the aircraft’s control surfaces.

Unlike traditional mechanical or hydraulic linkages, FBW replaces direct physical connections with digital logic and actuators, allowing the computer to automatically stabilise the aircraft, optimise performance, and, more importantly, prevent unsafe maneuvers.

While the pilot commands the aircraft, the computer ensures that those commands are executed safely and precisely.

This was great and all, but to work most effectively, we’d also need to implement another product, the FADEC.

FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) is a computerised system that manages all aspects of an aircraft engine’s operation, from fuel flow and ignition timing to turbine speed and thrust output. Unlike older mechanical or analog controls, FADEC provides precise, real-time adjustments to optimise performance, efficiency, and safety under varying flight conditions.

Its integration with fly-by-wire (FBW) systems is particularly significant because while FBW relies on electronic signals for flight control, FADEC grants the authority that allows the engine to respond automatically and predictably to pilot inputs, mission profiles, or autopilot commands.

This relationship between the two systems enables smoother handling, improved fuel efficiency, and enhanced safety, and would provide a significant improvement in safety and operating standards. This would help to turn air transport into the dominant industry that it’s become today.

Airbus’ A300 airliner would be the first civilian aircraft to enter service that would implement these features on a mainstream design

Global Impact & Safety Benefits

You might have gotten to this point in the article and heard “computers, computers, computers”, so let’s take a look at what that means to us frequent fliers in everyday terms.

Early aircraft were controlled using an intricate system of cables and pulleys to actuate the controls, and while it worked, it was vulnerable to bad inputs and outside interference regarding weather and turbulence. It also required an inherently stable design to ease the workload on the pilots. FBW would solve all of these issues by letting the computer operate on pilot inputs while automatically smoothing out outside interference. This would help us reduce the risk of unsafe manoeuvres while providing increased aerodynamic stall protection.

The FADEC would provide a similar effect regarding the engines. Now, auto throttles would become more prevalent, and this would allow the FADEC to provide additional protection to the engines. Inputs were optimised, and this would ensure that the engine would be kept within safe parameters, providing significant improvements in reliability rates and safety outcomes.

The real value, however, came from the hybrid implementation of both systems. This would reduce the workload for the flight crew, and as the systems would reach mainstream adoption, we’d see this reflected in the crew numbers. Those of the older generation might remember when an aircraft would travel with a navigator or flight engineer, providing a crew of three.

The introduction of GPS paired with the adoption of fully digital systems management meant that the role would be lost to automation, providing us with the “crew of two” scenario that is so common today.

Use Outside Aviation

While the biggest visible impact would be in aviation, the reality is that the concept of FBW would provide many other benefits to heavy industry as well. At its core, using electronic signals to replace manual inputs had many other applications as well. As such, we’d see usage of the term grow far beyond the field of aviation.

Cars would introduce new “drive-by-wire” technology that would help with fuel efficiency and provide a smoother, more manageable ride. In some applications, we’d also see the development of “brake-by-wire” or “steer-by-wire” as well. This would help manufacturers to develop new safety features.

We’d also see it applied in the field of robotics, or more specifically, surgical robotics. Electronic control systems would enable the development of surgical robots that could make precise, minute cuts far more accurately than humans could, providing huge advancements in life expectancy and providing the resources needed to tackle complex medical problems.

However, one of the most interesting applications would be in the development of satellites and spacecraft. FBW would help eliminate the heavy control systems that were in use on earlier satellites, replacing them with electronically actuated systems that were lighter and more efficient. This would make spacecraft more stable and would eventually lay the foundations for autonomous operation in space.

Sometimes, the introduction of one piece of technology can help to reshape the world around us.

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