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Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

reuters.com

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Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#231
post #187

Do they still have the oversized new engines on an old frame design requiring software aid (MCAS) to mitigate problems at high angles of attack?

The aircraft didn't crash because of oversized engines. It crashed because MCAS was poorly implemented. A properly implemented MCAS system and there is no problem with the aircraft.

I think my comment agrees with that? I was curious on the solution. Thanks for answering.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#232
post #87

Don’t care. Show me real movement on the corporate mindset. The plane is a STEM engineer fixable issue. The corporate mess that pushed this across flying clearance is not. I’ll aim to fly airbus until Boeing understands that difference and fixes the root cause.

If the corporate mindset were to change, how would you know? What actions would convince you that they were putting safety first again?

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#233
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that there was a single angle of attack (AoA) sensor active that was complained about and failed hundreds of times. [1] Not only is that a single point of failure, it is more easily sabotaged or easily damaged. Besides the fact the plane has engines too big for it and needed this MCAS system simply to retrofit and route around regulations and deal with that by constantly checking the AoA to trigger nose dow…

In the original design, wasn't there an optional safety feature that added a second AoA sensor? It seems unbelievable, and is possibly one of the most ridiculous things about this whole story. Presumably as part of the update, this optional feature has become standard? I'd also like to see a list of all the airlines that chose not to spec the additional sensor in their initial order of the aircraft. It probably says…

From what I understand, the plane always has two sensors and MCAS always only used one of them (with Boing arguing that the pilot was the "redundancy"). The plane was supposed to show an alert when the two sensors disagreed, but Boing made a mistake and that alert only showed when the airline had purchased an additional add-on package to show the sensor value in the pilot display. Boing discovered this in 2017, but did not consider this a safety-critical defect and thus didn't inform anyone or prioritize a fix, despite internally also assuming that the pilot realizing the issue within seconds was the redundancy for correcting MCAS.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#234
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of sociopathic behavior is natural outcome of business culture that is solely about maximizing shareholder value. I'm not sure what can be done to fix it.

You can't simply acculturate businesses against it- they will slowly be replaced by other businesses headed by ruthless sociopathic maximizers of shareholder value. This is the guaranteed outcome given this way of organizing commerce. Just as if you organized everyone into medieval guilds, we would replicate the behavior of medieval guilds.

>they will slowly be replaced by other businesses headed by ruthless sociopathic maximizers of shareholder value.

I dunno man, the culture came from McDonnell-Douglass which was actually purchased by engineer-centric-at-the-time Boeing. How this culture spread in Boeing ought to be some kind of HBS case study, except they wouldn't notice that it should be taken as a cautionary tale.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#235

Some will want to avoid flying this aircraft model. Here are some variants > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX#Variants And here are some operators > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_737_operators

I guess one would be able to check via an app like seatguru.com instead of perusing a long list on wikipedia. I also think someone would make an along the lines 737-Max-or-not if Boeing tries too hard with the renames.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#236
post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you see lots of pilots or aviation experts saying the opposite? Are there Max pilots that have come out and said "I'm done flying that thing"?

How many airline pilots are in a position to publically say that and still keep their jobs?

You can speak out anonymously in media interviews. Ryanair pilots do this frequnetly when it comes to unions/working environment...

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#238
post #50
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I disagree. If they’d taken the time to scrap the 737 Max and move to a new design, they’d have had the time and the public would have eaten the new product up. Instead, they doubled down and are now going to try to have to sell a product that many will refuse to ever fly on, myself included.

Considering that a new design would take like 10 years to get into production, how would that have been an immediate solution for Boeing? They need to be able to sell more 737 until a new design is ready, and no one wants that to be rushed. While I didn't hear anyting about a new design, I sincerely hope they are at it already though.

They could start with the 757, it doesn't have to be a completely new design, wikipedia suggests they are looking at this.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't simply acculturate businesses against it- they will slowly be replaced by other businesses headed by ruthless sociopathic maximizers of shareholder value. This is the guaranteed outcome given this way of organizing commerce. Just as if you organized everyone into medieval guilds, we would replicate the behavior of medieval guilds.

>they will slowly be replaced by other businesses headed by ruthless sociopathic maximizers of shareholder value. I dunno man, the culture came from McDonnell-Douglass which was actually purchased by engineer-centric-at-the-time Boeing. How this culture spread in Boeing ought to be some kind of HBS case study, except they wouldn't notice that it should be taken as a cautionary tale.

For those unfamiliar with the case: Boeing and McDonnell-Douglass actually merged, but the name stayed Boeing. It is often said in the industry that McDonnell-Douglass bought Boeing with Boeing's own money.

The company that today uses the name Boeing looks, acts, and quacks a lot more like 1970s-1995 MD did, than 1970s-1995 Boeing did.

Re: Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard

#240
post #87

Don’t care. Show me real movement on the corporate mindset. The plane is a STEM engineer fixable issue. The corporate mess that pushed this across flying clearance is not. I’ll aim to fly airbus until Boeing understands that difference and fixes the root cause.

There you go: https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2020-11-06-Boeing-Appoints-Jinn... I worked with Jinnah before and he is great at shielding the engineers from executive. If hiring great execs is not movement of corporate mindset I don't know what is.

Looks like a good position. He did software for the SpaceX rockets and Dragon as well.
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