Posted on 07/20/2019 5:35:42 AM PDT by xxqqzz
The aftermath of two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets shortly after takeoff has led to the global grounding of the airplane. Boeing has been forced to cut production, and even so, undelivered planes are piling up. Big buyers like Southwest American Airlines have been forced to cancel flights during their peak time of year as a result of taking their 737s off line. American lengthened its 737 grounding to June 5 and Southwest, to August 5 [Update: American sent a notice to American Aadvantage members that the grounding would last through August 19].
Even though Boeing is scrambling to fix the software meant to counter the 737 Maxs increased propensity to stall as a result of the placement of larger, more fuel=efficient engines in a way that reduced the stability of the plane in flight, its not clear that this will be adequate in terms of flight safety or the public perception of the plane. And even though the FAA is almost certain to sign off on Boeings patch, foreign regulators may not be so forgiving. The divergence weve seen between the FAA and other national authorities is likely to intensify. Recall that China grounded the 737 Max before the FAA. In another vote of no confidence, even as Boeing was touting that its changes to its now infamous MCAS software, designed to compensate for safety risks introduced by the placement of the engines on the 737 Max, the Canadian air regulator said he wanted 737 Max pilots to have flight simulator training, contrary to the manufacturers assertion that it isnt necessary. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Airlines is developing 737 Max flight simulator training.
But a fundamental question remains: can improved software compensate for hardware shortcomings? Some experts harbor doubts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nakedcapitalism.com ...
It is the lack of quality control, testing, and qualified oversight, that is the issue.
Yes, MCAS was a band-aid that had too much authority....and pilots were not given enough information about it.
MCAS was Boeing’s way of avoiding a new type-rating that would have cost millions.
I agree. Automation is not the problem.
Airbus aircraft have done very well with fly-by-wire and extensive automation. Their safety over the last 20 years is excellent.
Boeing rushed the 737Max and should have done a clean-sheet design.
Frankly speaking I like the old days when we trusted the Pilots to control the plane. Putting your life in the hands of Electronic Chips without the Pilots ability to override the Software is a risk I would rather not take.
Youll love driverless cars. How many times a week does my computer at work lock up and need rebooting? Or my iPhone?
No driverless cars for me. I will drive my Ram 1500 until the wheels fall off.
[MCAS was Boeings way of avoiding a new type-rating that would have cost millions.]
It produced far fewer deaths than a year of automated cars out on the public streets of the DC Metro area would.
“Youll love driverless cars.”
Wait until that lane-keeping function fails. The car will be undrivable. Oh, and how about a proximity warning that won’t shut off?
Boeing rushed the 737Max and should have done a clean-sheet design.
*
Agree. Boeing should recall the 737 Max and do a major modification to the structure, location of wings and engines or just eat the cost and scrap the plane altogether. Otherwise, appears to me this plane will be nothing but trouble going forward.
Try Windows 10.
I'm sure that'll get a laugh from some, but it's been pretty reliable for me.
Of interest.
Yes, it was both time to market and companies, like Southwest, that did not want pay for a separate type-rating for its pilots.
That was an Airbus advantage with the Neo....it does not have a separate type rating from the 319/320/321....so pilots are interchangeable.
There was an article from about a year ago, before the crashes, where the author, almost predicting the future, said that what Boeing needs now is the 757, which had been cancelled years ago. The reason was that airlines were wanting more capacity on relatively short haul flights and travelers were sick of regional plane (smaller ones), and the 757 virtually matched their needs. The 757 sits higher, and has its engines where they belong, under the wing, rather than the goofy Max, which practically has them in front of the nose, due to sitting so low.
But I suspect that the plans and tooling have been ‘recycled’ so as to save storage costs. Not the first time aerospace companies have done the same, just plain stupid. You rent a warehouse outside of Seattle for $3,000 or so a month, throw in all the key tooling, have a relatively small climate-controlled area for the design and certification documentation (carefully indexed), hire a contract guard or two, and put in an alarm system (they can get 24 hour monitoring for less than $30 per month). Utilities are next to nothing in Seattle due to the climate, and so you run the operation for maybe $10k per month, and if you want to resurrect the 757, even 20 years later, it’s all there, and you paid $2.4M for all those years, whereas starting again from scratch would cost well into the billions.
Go figure.
Exactly. May I add as a former flight attendant (1970-1990) I remember the time when pilot skills and experience mattered significantly where safety was concerned. Flight crews are paid top salaries, often more than physicians. They should make decisions we are leaving to automation. The mind is a terrible thing to waste when dealing with the nuances of passenger safety. Total automation doesn’t meet this standard and never will.
2018...German...one of the well known German makes...and the computers are always telling me what I must,and must not,do. I've had to enlist the help of several younger family members to figure the damn thing out (the owner's manual is around 600 pages).
It's basically a 3,000 pound computer on wheels.
“If Boeing’s CEO used his damn engineering degree he would have questioned this.
But he was using his CEO quarterly profit hat.”
Actually, the current Boeing CEO has an engineering degree. The one at the time the 737 Max came out was BA Yale, MBA Harvard. Worked at Procter and Gamble on brand management.
GIGO
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