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I've flown on a 737 MAX a couple times this year. Smooth, comfortable, quiet flight. Although the failure of the MCAS system has been catastrophic, fortunately

by jquery 8y ago

I've flown on a 737 MAX a couple times this year. Smooth, comfortable, quiet flight. Although the failure of the MCAS system has been catastrophic, fortunately for Boeing the fix doesn't seem difficult... make an extra AoA vane or two mandatory and add a warning if they disagree, and require MAX pilots to sim train an MCAS failure. The planes seem eminently airworthy, so far it appears they weren't brought down by anything that's terribly difficult to engineer out of. Unfortunately for Boeing and the FAA, nothing is more costly than an accident, it will take years to earn back the public's trust. Even if it's found the pilots were downright negligent in their handling of the MCAS failure, that won't make the general flying public feel any better about it, and it won't bring back the dead, may they rest in peace.

cjbprime 8y ago
There's already two AoA vanes mandatory on every plane (even non-MAX planes). There is a warning if they disagree in the optional package that the North American airlines bought, but not any other airlines. The warning is not much of a warning, just a disagree light. It would have been impossible for the Lion Air pilots to benefit from this disagree light, because they didn't know that it was hooked up to a control surface and neither did any other pilots, it seems. > The planes seem eminently airworthy An uncontrolled nosedive caused by a single sensor failure is not in anyone's definition of airworthy. It must be fixed. This lack of airworthiness was not the pilots' fault.
- dingaling 8y ago
  > There's already two AoA vanes mandatory on every plane And all Airbus types have three or four. Boeings only have two, even on the 787 ( on which one is vulnerable to damage from jetbridges ). It is disappointing that a manufacturer would cut corners on sensors for a $100 million aircraft.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    Airbus needs more because there's no mechanical backup to the flight control computers.

by jquery 8y ago

cjbprime 8y ago

There's already two AoA vanes mandatory on every plane (even non-MAX planes). There is a warning if they disagree in the optional package that the North American airlines bought, but not any other airlines. The warning is not much of a warning, just a disagree light. It would have been impossible for the Lion Air pilots to benefit from this disagree light, because they didn't know that it was hooked up to a control surface and neither did any other pilots, it seems. > The planes seem eminently airworthy An uncontrolled nosedive caused by a single sensor failure is not in anyone's definition of airworthy. It must be fixed. This lack of airworthiness was not the pilots' fault.

dingaling 8y ago
> There's already two AoA vanes mandatory on every plane And all Airbus types have three or four. Boeings only have two, even on the 787 ( on which one is vulnerable to damage from jetbridges ). It is disappointing that a manufacturer would cut corners on sensors for a $100 million aircraft.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  Airbus needs more because there's no mechanical backup to the flight control computers.