I spent almost 21 years in Boeing Experimental Flight Test.
I helped certify most modern Boeing aircraft up to the 737 NG. I left Boeing before they did the MAX.
I had to certify my designs to the FAA.
I understand the process.
The MAX people failed miserably, not because they are bad engineers, but because “Share value” became more important than building the best aircraft in the world.
I left Boeing because of that change in focus of the Boeing product. I built the best aircraft in the world, the profits will roll in. I really didn’t care about making shareholders richer(although I was a shareholder).
Want to fix Boeing? Move Corporate back to Seattle.
Where I could walk across the street and make a complaint directly to the company president, if I thought something was wrong.
Still how could anyone be comfortable with an undisclosed, non-redundant, non-failsafe fly by wire control system?
I’m sure that Wall Street’s greed plays just as bigger role in that than does Boeing.
This article is purposely emotional and vague, it also assumes government is going to somehow fix the problem. Where was government in preventing it? And in terms of financial markets and our speculative, debt-fueled, financialized society, government is directly responsible
As you pointed out, it seems that aircraft engineering and quality took a back seat to marketers and especially financial engineering in a desire to boost stock prices. Certainly top management made out like bandits
I read somewhere that Boeing’s share buy-backs, which were in the end “wasted” by the crash in its share price anyway, would have easily paid for investment in 2 or 3 completely new aircraft programs which the company could ride for another 25 years
I suspect that the 777 was the last great airplane Boeing made. (I documented some of the avionics black boxes, back in the day.)