The Boeing 777 was Boeing’s first aircraft built using fly-by-wire flight controls.
The 777 was Boeing’s first commercial aircraft to use a full digital fly-by-wire flight-control system. Instead of relying solely on direct mechanical connections between cockpit controls and control surfaces, the system sends pilot commands through computers that then direct the aircraft’s actuators.
Boeing designed the 777 system with conventional pilot-control movement and with protections intended to prevent certain unsafe flight conditions. The aircraft also retained a familiar control-column arrangement rather than adopting the side-stick used by some competing aircraft.
Fly-by-wire does not mean that pilots cannot control the airplane directly; it describes how control inputs are transmitted and managed. Earlier Boeing jets, including the 737 and 767, used primarily mechanical or hydraulically boosted control systems. Later Boeing commercial types, including the 787, also use advanced digital flight controls.