This isn't the kind of technical post I'd expect to see on HN. There's not much details on the MCAS[0]. It wasn't only for the 737 Max to be cheap to make, it w

This isn't the kind of technical post I'd expect to see on HN. There's not much details on the MCAS[0]. It wasn't only for the 737 Max to be cheap to make, it was up to MCAS to make it so current 737(NG) pilots could fly them without extensive retraining. This is where multiple things went wrong, basically MCAS is lying to the pilots pretending to be a plane it's not, and unfortunately relying on a single AOA sensor that it bases those lies upon. The MCAS that's in 737 MAX today is different than what were the source of confusion and fatalities in the past. (e.g. Pilots can now always override MCAS inputs using the control column; MCAS can no longer command more stabilizer movement than the pilots can counteract by pulling back on the yoke). The whole idea isn't bad in itself, but the bean counters gleefully skimped to save too many beans in initial/early versions and there wasn't a culture where engineers could pull 'the brake' and blamelessly improve a bad situation. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneuvering_Characteristics_Augmentation_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneuvering_Characteristics_Au...