3 ms·

It's not the naming convention; the name just matches the certification/rating scheme. The substance of keeping the rating consistent has to do with how the pl

It's not the naming convention; the name just matches the certification/rating scheme. The substance of keeping the rating consistent has to do with how the plane operates, the flight controls, etc. There are potentially perverse incentives here, but it's not as trivial as that.

darkpuma 8y ago
If Boeing had chosen to name it the 738, would that really have had no psychological impact on the humans involved in the process of determining whether or not Boeing should be permitted to consider it the "same" aircraft for certification/rating?
- jcoby 8y ago
  It's not really a psychological question. Boeing had no option to change the name and meet the requests of its customers. The FAA says you have to have a B-737 rating to fly any 737, regardless of revision [1]. The MAX series is the maximum number of changes the FAA would permit and still allow it to be called a 737. In theory, someone who is type rated and familiar with the -100 series should be able to safely operate the MAX 8. Most likely the airlines have rules above and beyond that (like requiring sim or right seat time in a particular revision), but this is the motivation behind the aircraft. If they had made a 738, it would have needed to go through certification as if it were a new design. By making it a revision, the certification process is significantly reduced in both time and costs. 1. https://registry.faa.gov/TypeRatings/ https://registry.faa.gov/TypeRatings/ (note the MAX isn't present on this list; I assume due to it being grounded)
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    I presume that if Boeing arbitrarily decided that all new production 737NGs were to be renamed 738 with no engineering changes, on just the whim of some marketing team, the FAA would recognize it as the same airplane despite the different name. Perhaps they'd be quite annoyed with Boeing for doing that, but I can't imagine they'd actually require all pilots to retrain. That's just my presumption though.
- mimixco 8y ago
  Good point, but from what I understand, the big issue is the type rating. Apparently, aicraft with very different names like 767/777/787 and A330/A340, share a type rating so they only require "simplified" training. Maybe a pilot can chime in on what the real training is like when switching between aircraft of the same type rating and how a manufacturer or the FAA decide on what constitutes a new type.
  - cjbprime 8y ago
    No, 767/777/787 are three different type ratings requiring separate pilot endorsements. It's the submodels that share the rating.

darkpuma 8y ago

If Boeing had chosen to name it the 738, would that really have had no psychological impact on the humans involved in the process of determining whether or not Boeing should be permitted to consider it the "same" aircraft for certification/rating?

jcoby 8y ago
It's not really a psychological question. Boeing had no option to change the name and meet the requests of its customers. The FAA says you have to have a B-737 rating to fly any 737, regardless of revision [1]. The MAX series is the maximum number of changes the FAA would permit and still allow it to be called a 737. In theory, someone who is type rated and familiar with the -100 series should be able to safely operate the MAX 8. Most likely the airlines have rules above and beyond that (like requiring sim or right seat time in a particular revision), but this is the motivation behind the aircraft. If they had made a 738, it would have needed to go through certification as if it were a new design. By making it a revision, the certification process is significantly reduced in both time and costs. 1. https://registry.faa.gov/TypeRatings/ https://registry.faa.gov/TypeRatings/ (note the MAX isn't present on this list; I assume due to it being grounded)
- darkpuma 8y ago
  I presume that if Boeing arbitrarily decided that all new production 737NGs were to be renamed 738 with no engineering changes, on just the whim of some marketing team, the FAA would recognize it as the same airplane despite the different name. Perhaps they'd be quite annoyed with Boeing for doing that, but I can't imagine they'd actually require all pilots to retrain. That's just my presumption though.
mimixco 8y ago
Good point, but from what I understand, the big issue is the type rating. Apparently, aicraft with very different names like 767/777/787 and A330/A340, share a type rating so they only require "simplified" training. Maybe a pilot can chime in on what the real training is like when switching between aircraft of the same type rating and how a manufacturer or the FAA decide on what constitutes a new type.
- cjbprime 8y ago
  No, 767/777/787 are three different type ratings requiring separate pilot endorsements. It's the submodels that share the rating.