Cathode-ray-tube (CRT) flight-instrument displays and digital-technology flight-management systems arrived in operational airline cockpits only in 1982. Digital fly-by-wire control arrived less than seven years ago, in 1988.
Today, however, the instrument displays of the Boeing 767, 757 and Airbus Industrie A310/A300-600 (the order in which the aircraft entered service) look relatively primitive compared with cockpits in the 747-400, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, or the fly-by-wire-controlled Airbuses starting with the A320 in 1988.
Airbus partner companies were unique in having experience with air-transport "fly-by-wire" control technology - albeit analogue - in the Concorde. As the market newcomer, Airbus was under pressure to innovate to provide its aircraft with a perceptible advantage over existing technology, because, in the late 1970s, Boeing was planning to attack the traditional-technology A300B2/B4's monopoly of the wide-body-twin market with the 767.
Boeing was originally going to deliver the 767 to American Airlines in 1982 with a three-man traditional cockpit - albeit reluctantly. In the event, both the 767 and 757 were delivered that year with two-man cockpits. It was not until 1986, however, when the Australian domestic airlines demanded CRT displays in their new 737-300s that the "glass cockpit" came to the 737 series.
Source: Flight International
