Flight control system for aircraft with autopilot

A flight control system for an aircraft, comprising:

• a first set of primary flight control computers and a second set of secondary flight control computers, the secondary flight control computers implementing flight control functionalities which are simplified with respect to the primary flight control computers, the primary flight control computers being configured to control control surface actuators of the aircraft mutually exclusively depending on possible failures of one or more of the primary flight control computers;
• wherein each primary flight control computer is configured to implement a first autopilot functionality, the flight control system being configured so that the secondary flight control computers take control of the control surface actuators in response to a failure of the primary flight control computers;
• wherein the secondary flight control computers are configured to jointly control the control surface actuators and each secondary flight control computer is configured to control its own subset of the control surface actuators;
• and
• wherein the flight control system further comprises a master computer, to which the secondary flight control computers are connected, configured to implement a second autopilot functionality which is simplified with respect to the first autopilot functionality, the second autopilot functionality being able to be activated only when the secondary flight control computers have control of the control surface actuators.