Posted on 01/16/2020 12:23:02 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Boeing’s engineering crisis became visible to the public with the 737 MAX crashes, but has been ongoing for over a decade, affecting all developments.
Many point at the McDonnell Douglas merger as Boeing’s rotation to squeeze out every dollar.
Boeing should learn that safety is not a relative thing that you stick to when it pleases you and a commodity you trade when schedule risk needs to be mitigated.
Having followed the industry for years, however, it also should be noted that Boeing has had issues on almost all its recent designs. In this report, I will discuss these issues per aircraft program. While Boeing's "mistakes" will be highlighted in the report, I think it's very appropriate to be aware that aircraft design is complex. We are talking about aircraft that need to be able to take off from a 3-4 kilometer runway, climb to 30,000-40,000 feet and land safely again, each and every day. If this were an easy task, every country would have a jet maker in the same way almost every country has an airline.
Without further ado, let's look at some of the challenges Boeing had on various programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
Also foreign outsourcing of maintenance and careless manufacturing practices.
Related? Here were some Mechanical issues on Boeing planes just this week alone. Maybe. Maybe Not.
Feds investigating Delta flight that dumped jet fuel on California schools
L.A.-Bound United Airlines Flight Returns to Newark After Flames Seen Near Wing
Once again it appears upper level management ignored warning for the designers and their crews. Now the upper level managers get to keep their jobs or retire with big bonuses, like the CED did recently. The responsibility of fixing the problems will now fall on the designers and their support crews to fix the problems.
Our own government unaware of just how swampy Deep State Boeing has gotten in past decade.
Transportation Sec. Elaine Chao remains firmly in Boeing and FAA’s corner.
Trump urges Boeing to move fast on resolving 737 MAX issues
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-no-doubt-boeing-174340485.html
Ping Megan. :)
I don't understand why these murderous scoundrels aren't in jail.
Is Boeing one of those companies that fires its most experienced engineering staff in favor of temporary contract engineers and cheap and/or expendable graduates just out of college?
Fuel efficiency is driven by economics, not climate change hysteria.
It appears there’s only one real solution to the 737 MAX issue: redesign the wing from the ground up to accommodate the larger LEAP-1B engine. While it can be done, it means having to remove the wings from some 700 planes now completed and install new one—not a cheap proposition since wing design is one of the most expensive parts of developing an airplane.
“To make matters worse, Boeing has laid off seasoned workers, which means that veteran expertise has been flowing out. [...] Boeing has been trying to cut costs by lowering their engineering headcount while its engineering challenges have not grown any less.”
Had Boeing included redundant angle of attack sensors as a standard item instead of an expensive add on option they would not have been in the position they find themselves.
Not having a redundant AOA in a flight critical stability system that relies on the input of an AOA sensor for safe operation is inexplicable
Its axiomatic that one is none, two is one and three is minimum basic complement on any mission critical component of a complex system
Also a complete separation of computer flight adjustments from normal flight piloting is necessary. -Tom
[the rush to get things like like ‘fuel-efficient’ engines on planes]
I wonder how long an airliner needs to idle on the ramp waiting for weather or traffic to clear before the entire flight becomes unprofitable.
The problem is easy to understand:
Boeing’s management made the decision to put economics above passenger safety.
Boeing should be punished in the marketplace for this sort of finances-above-engineering/safety choice.
They could redeem themselves, sort of, by a slogan such as “Passenger safety is our first and only job at Boeing,” and meaning it.
PFL
bookmark
“It appears there’s only one real solution to the 737 MAX issue: redesign the wing from the ground up to accommodate the larger LEAP-1B engine.”
Not at all. There’s no issue with airframe worthiness, the crashes were caused by a single faulty sensor in both cases (along with bad design).
The irony is that a safety system mistakenly pushed the nose down, and there was no easy way to disable the system (a big mistake, and different than any other previous 737).
The 737 Max itself has flown thousands of flights without incident otherwise.
Moving HQ to ChIraq certainly counts a a boneheaded move that in no way could help their management control.
Ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.