Fly by Wire by William Langewiesche

From The Week of October 03, 2010

There was something extraordinary about the Miracle on the Hudson, the name we seem to have collectively granted to the perfect piece of flying executed by captain Chesley Sullenberger, whose training and steely nerve saw him deposit an airliner, full of passengers, safely into the Hudson river after engines fouled by birds gave out and necessitated an emergency landing. Though Mr. Langewiesche concentrates on the technical details of the plane, the flight and the landing, leaving aside questions of public consciousness, even he seems captivated by this singular moment in time. It lacks the gravitas of a political election, or the decisiveness of a battle in a war, and yet captain Sullenberger's feat was a rare moment of joy in a decade of American life dominated by difficult and dark events.

Fly by Wire is an admirably sober assessment of what occurred over the Hudson on January 15th, 2009. Mr. Langewiesche narrates the history of the plane captain Sullenberger flew, its French designer's efforts to make it an infallible fly, and the systems that assisted Sullenberger in making a successful landing. Interspersed through this narrative are moments from Sullenberger's life, his frustrations with the state of the aviation industry, his difficulties with management, and the rivalries with crew from other airlines trying to maintain their jobs in a shrinking industry. This is all set against the broader battle between Airbus and Boeing, the two major manufacturers of international airliners, and their vastly different approaches to the creation of an aircraft and the powers of its pilot. There's a lot here to digest in 180 odd pages, but Mr. Langewiesche pulls it all off with commendable skill and dramatic flair.

Though he stops short of crapping all over the Sullenberger-as-hero narrative, Mr. Langewiesche believes that the airbus plane Sullenberger flew has not received its due and that, without its contributions to the landing, the situation might have been tragic. Those who wish to believe in the hero narrative will find this conclusion bitter, but the author's case is convincing, not only as it pertains to the Miracle on the Hudson, but as it relates to the future of human pilots. Eventually, the systems in these planes will be far better able to fly the plane than the fallible human pilot. A scary thought, but one we'll have to adjust to and one which will, sadly, make ceremonial one of the last few occupations from which we can legitimately draw heroes. (4/5 Stars)