Definition being; flight controls were operated by electric motors rather than cables.
Good call Nicholas. I didn't google the question because I was looking for interest as well as answers. Actually the FW 190 used f-b-w but I'm not sure they were the first production model.
♛ Nicolas ♛
Favorite Answer
Electronic signalling of the control surfaces was first tested in the 1930s, on the Soviet Tupolev ANT-20. This replaced long runs of mechanical and hydraulic connections with electrical ones.
The first pure electronic fly-by-wire aircraft with no mechanical or hydraulic backup was the Apollo Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), first flown in 1964.
The first non-experimental aircraft that was designed and flown (in 1958) with a fly-by-wire flight control system was the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, a feat not repeated with a production aircraft until Concorde in 1969.
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First Fly By Wire Aircraft
Marteen J
The first true fly-by-wire fixed wing aircraft without a mechanical backup to take to the air (in 1972) was an F-8 Crusader, which had been modified electronically by NASA as a test aircraft.
There were other aircraft out there, but they either never flew or they were not true fly by wire on all the aircraft controls