A320 vs. B737

It is probally just "user friendly"

It depends on each person. I am an Airbus fan and I find that flying Airbus is much fun and easy. In real life, the A320 is much easier to use than the 737.

Airbus is far more "computer" operated. Nearly all the systems are automated, and you'd need to manually shut them off (i.e. the autothrottle). The flight controls are auto-trimming, and there are just a whole bunch of features that the computers automatically compensates for. The Boeing by default starts from bare bones, and then it's up to you to start turning the auto systems on etc. etc.

I personally don't like the airbus planes as much. It's true that they are more responsive to your touch, beautiful planes to fly (thank's to all the automatic compensation for the flight controls and such). However I find it difficult to work with the logic. Airbus is top to bottom thinking, where most things are already there for you. I'm a bottom to top thinker myself, hence why the Boeing appeals!

Ultimately, whatever you learn the best you'll probably end up loving the most =)!

By the way, yes I do understand the irony of being a boeing man but having an A320 in my UVA icon =)

Recently had a couple of friends transition to the Airbus having flown the 737 3,4,500 for about 10 years. Having to unlearn everything they knew and go with the Airbus philosophy was apparantly very difficult. Love it or hate it the Airbus technology is the way ahead, all we do is monitor the systems. I don't personally have a preference as they both have good points and bad but from the point of view of one who does not like to think too much Airbus is the one that makes life easy and Boeing is the one that takes you back to flying for real....almost! Referring of course to the 737 up to the 500 series.

PH has hit the nail on the head; It's hard to argue that the Airbus isn't more technically advanced in terms of the Automation but at the end of the day it comes down to preference.

Here's a different angle;

From a Passenger perspective the Airbus has wider seats, a wider aisle, a quieter cabin and (subjectively) a smoother ride.

Personally what GPS-kid just mentioned about the whole, better flight for the passengers, im sure boeing could easily transition to that.

On another note I've always been fasented by the 747 in just about every aspect, but now looking at the airbus A380, i love the overall appearence of it. Taking a closer at the A380's cockpit compared to the 747, theres A HUGE difference. Barely any buttons and everything technologically advanced compared to the old 747 with hundreds of buttons and most of all as mentioned before, takes you back to flying for real. So even with all of the awesome new features in the A380 i still have a hard time deciding if id want to fly between wanting to fly a A380 or a 747-400, because both planes have excellent features with different aspects.

The airbus is what I'd call a terrorist friendly plane actually, so easy to fly it is a joke. People dislike the PMDG 737 because it very very accurately models the real 737

--newsflash-- the real 737 differs ALOT from the pathetic attempts of the ms defualt 737, you can't jsut jump in and know how to fly it.

If you take the time out to actually read the manuals and do the tutorials, you'll find that the 737 is yes, a vey complex plane but with practise is a nice plane to fly, flying the 737 to me now is second nature, it handles beautifully on manual and behaves itself on the LNAV and VNAV.

my vote: Boeing! im sorry but airbus is.....too....simple lol not enough challenge in it

All this reminds me of a story about aircrews in the automated planes of the future.

There will always be two crew members, a pilot and a dog. The pilot's job will be to feed the dog. The dog's job will be to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything in the cockpit.

Speaking of terrorist friendly does anyone know what types of planes were invovled with 911?