an elevator movement of 30 degrees may severely damage the airplane therefore the flight control computer 302 adjusts the operation of the elevator moving the control stick all the way to the rear may result in the elevators moving up only 5 degrees at 400 knots but the resulting pitch of the airplane is identical to an elevator movement of 30 degrees at 200 knots in other words flight control computer 302 senses the airspeed of the airplane and changes the behavior of the control surfaces depending on that airspeed a similar adjustment can be made based on altitude an airplane should not be pitched downward at a severe angle if the airplane is 500 feet above the ground flight control computer 302 can prevent the pilot from pitching the aircraft downward at a severe angle at certain altitudes flight control computer 302 can also be configured to maintain a constant airspeed for example a different configuration of flaps and slats can result in increased drag slowing the airplane if such a slowing is not desired flight control computer 302 can be configured to increase the throttle to the engines or change the pitch in the airplane to maintain the same airspeed without any additional input from the pilot fig3 shows that flight control computer 302 is full time critical in the prior art fly by wire.