scrubbedexpat091

Kind of an interesting lawsuit filed recently. The lawsuit accuses Boeing and Southwest Airlines of collusion.

Lawsuit was filed July 11 in federal court using Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.(RICO)

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/class-...over-737-max-8


Executive in charge of the 737 plant in Renton due to retire. He held the position since August 2018, doesn't appear he was involved in the 737 MAX development, taking charge after it was in production.

"Mr. Lindblad wasn’t involved in the development of the MAX. He took charge last August as production of the plane was slowed by supply-chain kinks including late delivery of fuselages and engines. "

https://www.wsj.com/articles/head-of...es-11562882041

dave_j

The MAX is dead... Long live the.. er 737-8200 ?
https://www.theguardian.com/business...es-name-change

caretaker

Borrowing a slogan from the old Norcanair of Saskatchewan:
If You Don't Care, Fly Ryanair

scrubbedexpat091

Might be the first time its been used in such a public way, from what I can gather the -8200 is to designate the higher density MAX-8 Ryan Air has. Not applicable to most other airlines who fly a less dense variant. I do think Boeing will eventually re-brand the MAX but doubt it will be this. The -8200 designation goes back to at least 2015 before any aircraft were even delivered.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...ly-new-459666/

dave_j

A colleague of mine, when once presented with a ticklish problem defined his solution as "the dictates of common sense".
It's been a lesson I learned well that a dispassionate approach to a problem generally points you in the right direction, a lesson Boeing would have done well to learn.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/busin...oss/index.html
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has done well to keep his job, a pity that one result of this is that others might lose theirs.

scrubbedexpat091

Southwest has dropped the MAX from its schedule until January 2020.

Once the plane is cleared to fly, airlines would need 1-2 months possibly longer to get the planes back into service/pilots trained and such.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/25/sout...grounding.html

dave_j

Skins keep peeling away from this onion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/b...7-max-faa.html
It's becoming clear just how little of the MAX FAA review was actually completed.
I draw your attention to a safety recommendation concerning safety redesign of control surface actuating cables, nothing to do with MCAS, that was rejected by Boeing because Boeing didn't want to implement it and the FAA overruled it's own engineers. I have to say that reports such as this make me ask whether any of the MAX hulks now rotting in plain site should ever be used to carry passengers. What else remains to be uncovered.
"F.A.A. managers conceded that the Max “does not meet” agency guidelines “for protecting flight controls,” according to an agency document."

caretaker

At some point will it stop being worthwhile to retrofit? Ship of Theseus and all that.

Gordon Barlow

Even our little Cayman Airways (in the Caribbean) has two of these beasts sitting idle, which is screwing up its schedules. Of course it's anybody's guess whether we'll be compensated for the inconvenience!
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKCN1UK1N5

dave_j

These planes flew many times without incident, but......
Q. Knowing what you know now, would you take the chance and fly in one of these?
A question that must be haunting the likes of Ryanair and among others the little Cayman Airways.

Gordon Barlow

At my advanced age I would fly in one of the planes; I wouldn't have much to lose if it crashed! But if I were much younger, probably not. The problem is not so much the engineering of the machines, it's the trust passengers are being asked to put in a corrupt FAA. For a great many years it has been a revolving door for the inspectors and certifiers, moving from Boeing (in this case) to the FAA while retaining their loyalty (!) to Boeing. Reportedly, the FAA has been delegating the inspections and justifications to the manufacturers and their employees. That's pure corruption. So I will tell my family not to fly in the 737 Max until the FAA personnel have been vetted as honest and suitable.

scrubbedexpat091

China Southern has reportedly cancelled their remaining order.

scrubbedexpat091

So apparently it was a misquote and the order was not cancelled.

jimf

Take a stable plane, make it bigger and unstable and then add a software system...

https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/...ware-developer

calman014

The only faulty software is the jellied brains of the people who approved this aircraft as safe to fly.

Fitting a new type of high powered engine or different engine type would NORMALLY involve changes to the airframe and/or at least a new wing construction.

They tried to take shortcuts here to make a profit. A software fix alone is inadequate and totally against traditional aircraft safety culture.

Changing the name of the plane wont't fix the problem.