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What if it never receives certification? What if the way they mounted those big engines on a short plane proves to be a fatal design compromise?
by CydeWeys 7y ago
What if it never receives certification? What if the way they mounted those big engines on a short plane proves to be a fatal design compromise?
- dboreham 7y agoThen they get used for freight and military transport and we all fly Airbus.
- CydeWeys 7y agoReally? Are the regulation requirements for non-passenger-service really that much more lax? A 737 MAX crashing into a city somewhere could easily kill a lot of people in addition to the two pilots onboard.
- dilap 7y agoDunno about freight, but there are zero certifications for so-called experimental aircraft. You can slap wings on a VW bus and fly it if you want.
- CydeWeys 7y agoYou can't sell experimental aircraft though, not commercially anyway. So you wouldn't see 737s being used for freight under this regime.
- dilap 7y agoOh for sure. But if you’re worried about a random object falling on your head, it’s still a concern. But of course, practically (/statistically) speaking, you should be much more worried about rapidly-moving objects rolling over the ground.
- CydeWeys 7y agoWe're not talking about what I'm worried about, we're talking about what the FAA and other similar airplane licensing bodies will permit, and they are not allowing the MAX to fly for any purpose right now (save the one-time ferry flight to a parking spot until the problems are fixed). These licensing bodies only do airplanes, not cars, and so the safety of cars isn't relevant to them. But yes, on a personal level, I too find it shocking how >37k people are killed in motor vehicle crashes every year, with countless more injured, and yet we're doing so little about it. There's clearly a lot of low-hanging fruit there.
- danaliv 7y agoExperimental aircraft need a special airworthiness certificate. You need an inspection by the FAA, and you have to do a flight test program before being allowed to fly it over populated areas.
- dilap 7y agoI stand corrected, thank you! Unfortunately I can neither delete nor edit my original comment. I was thinking of ultralight aircrafts, but those have strict weight limits (no VW bus), so the potential damage from one crashing is much reduced.
- bdavis__ 7y agomilitary planes are certified, but to different requirements. and of course there is a trade off between safety of flight and mission effectiveness. military aviation is inherently a high risk endeavor.
- elkos 7y agoIf the Boeing 737 MAX doesn't get certified to fly again I think there's a stockpile of airplanes that could be re-tooled for military operations. Some ideas come in mind * flying tankers * airborne radars * electronic intelligence platforms * naval patrol platforms There are some companies trying to use airliners as orbital deployer platforms for small satellites. I personally doubt the 737 MAX will not be certified but I also doubt that FAA will not require pilot training. That maybe reason for some (but few airlines to cancel their contracts). But you should take my statement with a grain of salt.