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Yes, an MCAS system with 0 redundancy. > So even some of the people who have worked on Boeing’s new 737 MAX airplane were baffled to learn that the company had

Yes, an MCAS system with 0 redundancy. > So even some of the people who have worked on Boeing’s new 737 MAX airplane were baffled to learn that the company had designed an automated safety system that abandoned the principles of component redundancy, ultimately entrusting the automated decision-making to just one sensor — a type of sensor that was known to fail. Boeing’s rival, Airbus, has typically depended on three such sensors. “A single point of failure is an absolute no-no,” said one former Boeing engineer who worked on the MAX, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the program in an interview with The Seattle Times. “That is just a huge system engineering oversight. To just have missed it, I can’t imagine how.” https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/a-lack-of-redundancies-on-737-max-system-has-baffled-even-those-who-worked-on-the-jet/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/a-lac...

Nomentatus 7y ago
No need to imagine - Boeing was selling the sane more-sensors solution as an extra, and just assumed - before the fact - that no airline would pass on the extra sensor. That would be insane. So, more money for Boeing, AND a lower list price. The airlines shouldn't have bought unsafe airplanes, but were crazy enough to do so. The buyers turned out to be even worse chancers.
- markdown 7y ago
  > The airlines shouldn't have bought unsafe airplanes, but were crazy enough to do so. The buyers turned out to be even worse chancers. The plane was made by Boeing, and signed off by the FAA as being safe. Some airline on the other side of the world isn't going to even pretend to know more about the plane than Boeing and the FAA do. It was a completely reasonable assumption to make that the aircraft was airworthy. The only airlines who would know that the FAA is actually corrupt (captured by Boeing) and could be failing at their regulatory function are the US airlines. It's unfortunate that you seem to be blaming Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines for the crashes because apparently they should have known better than to trust that Boeing and FAA would approve a faulty plane. Keep in mind that the FAA approved the plane as is and not "airworthy only if you buy the extra features"
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Nomentatus 7y ago
    I agree with everything except the idea that U.S. government oversight (not just in aviation) had been so wonderful and so fulsomely funded in the last few decades that it should have been trusted. At all. The 2008 economic crash - the largest robbery in the history of the world - was spawned by America's awful lack of governance and suffered by the whole world (with considerable blame also going to U.K., Iceland and a few more.) Which is just a single example of how obvious it is and was before 737-Max that oversight had long, long since jumped the shark in the U.S.
  - raymond_goo 7y ago
    And in addition, the new MCAS System was apparently hidden from the manual.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

Nomentatus 7y ago

No need to imagine - Boeing was selling the sane more-sensors solution as an extra, and just assumed - before the fact - that no airline would pass on the extra sensor. That would be insane. So, more money for Boeing, AND a lower list price. The airlines shouldn't have bought unsafe airplanes, but were crazy enough to do so. The buyers turned out to be even worse chancers.

markdown 7y ago
> The airlines shouldn't have bought unsafe airplanes, but were crazy enough to do so. The buyers turned out to be even worse chancers. The plane was made by Boeing, and signed off by the FAA as being safe. Some airline on the other side of the world isn't going to even pretend to know more about the plane than Boeing and the FAA do. It was a completely reasonable assumption to make that the aircraft was airworthy. The only airlines who would know that the FAA is actually corrupt (captured by Boeing) and could be failing at their regulatory function are the US airlines. It's unfortunate that you seem to be blaming Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines for the crashes because apparently they should have known better than to trust that Boeing and FAA would approve a faulty plane. Keep in mind that the FAA approved the plane as is and not "airworthy only if you buy the extra features"
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Nomentatus 7y ago
  I agree with everything except the idea that U.S. government oversight (not just in aviation) had been so wonderful and so fulsomely funded in the last few decades that it should have been trusted. At all. The 2008 economic crash - the largest robbery in the history of the world - was spawned by America's awful lack of governance and suffered by the whole world (with considerable blame also going to U.K., Iceland and a few more.) Which is just a single example of how obvious it is and was before 737-Max that oversight had long, long since jumped the shark in the U.S.
- raymond_goo 7y ago
  And in addition, the new MCAS System was apparently hidden from the manual.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]