A330 Normal Law: Putting Fly-by-Wire Into Perspective

From the author of Understanding Air France 447, Bill Palmer explains the Airbus A330 fly-by-wire system's Normal flight control law. Normal Law is the normal operating mode of the Airbus fly-by-wire flight control system. Described is a short history of fly-by-wire technology and how the Normal Law handling characteristics and flight envelope protections function and work together. This document describes the A330 in particular though other Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft are similar but have subtle differences inconsequential to most readers.