A major factor was that Airbus launched the A320 NEO and die hard, lifelong Boeing customers showed interest and even ordered the Airbus offering. Designing a

A major factor was that Airbus launched the A320 NEO and die hard, lifelong Boeing customers showed interest and even ordered the Airbus offering. Designing a completely new plane (which was considered for quite some time) would have taken far too long and Airbus would gave eaten Boeing's lunch in this important segment. So, Boeing McGivered a solution and updated a 60s airframe for modern use. To not having to recertify the plane they came up with a software hack, which they initially didn't even document and which far exceeded the capability of its original design. This[0] is a fantastic read which will leave you with a "how the fuck could they ever do that"? feeling and makes you wonder why nobody went to jail for that [0] https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-lo...