737 Max Updates and Cancellations

[J.O.]

No severance? How will he ever survive? /s

[boestar]

Thats what a contract is for.  When I leave, No matter how crappy a job I did, I get $X,000,000 on departure.

This is the problem today.  Over compensated incompetence.

 

[Specs]

8 hours ago, J.O. said:

No severance? How will he ever survive? /s

Oh I'm sure there are lot's of places that will welcome the likes of him with open arms.  The Pharmaceutical industry for example.  There's no shortage of places looking for a scoundrel or 2 to placate shareholders.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Specs

[Guest]

American Airlines cuts Boeing 737 Max from schedules until June as more delays arise

PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 14 202011:30 AM ESTUPDATED 38 MIN AGO

 

Leslie Josephs@LESLIEJOSEPHS

KEY POINTS

• American had 24 of the Boeing 737 Max planes at the time of the grounding last year and 76 on order.
• Boeing recently about-faced on whether pilots should undergo simulator training before flying the Max.
• It isn’t clear when regulators will allow the planes to fly again.WATCHNOW

American Airlines on Tuesday said it is pulling the Boeing 737 Max from its schedules until early June as the date of the troubled plane’s return to service becomes more uncertain and the manufacturer calls for time-consuming simulator training for pilots before they can fly the plane again.

American has taken the 737 Max off its schedules through June 3, more than a full year later than it expected. The planes have been grounded since mid-March after two fatal crashes over five months killed 346 people and sent Boeing into the biggest crisis in its more than 100-year history.

 

United Airlines also doesn’t expect the Max to return until early June — a sign carriers, which have already lost more than $1 billion in revenue from the grounding, are expecting the problem to extend to the peak second- and third-quarter travel seasons.

It has becoming increasingly less clear when the planes will be able to fly again. Boeing is planning to temporarily shut down production of the planes this month as it works to win over regulators on fixes prompted by the two crashes. Last week, Boeing about-faced on simulator training, saying pilots should undergo that time-consuming preparation before the planes return to commercial service.

A lack of simulator training was a key selling point to airlines and shocking emails recently revealed Boeing employees boasted about bullying regulators and airlines into accepting the jets without requiring pilots to undergo the additional training. That change promises to add to Boeing’s costs and possible revenue losses for airlines.

American estimates the grounding cost it $540 million in pretax income last year. Last week, the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline said it reached an initial compensation agreement with Boeing. It didn’t disclose the terms but said it would share $30 million with its employees. Pilots said they would seek additional compensation for lost income after the carrier had to slash its growth plans for the year. American had 24 of the planes in its fleet at the time of the grounding and expected to have 40 more by the end of 2019, and 10 additional in 2020.

The airline said that it will operate flights for American Airlines employees and “invited guests” before the planes return to commercial service. American reports earnings later this month.

Boeing took a $4.9 billion charge last July to compensate its 737 Max customers. As the grounding drags on, that amount may rise and the company is set to update investors on that cost later this month.

[Don Hudson]

Panel Clears 737 MAX’s Safety-Approval Process at FAA
Boeing’s 737 MAX was certified as a derivative rather than an all-new plane
Boeing 737 MAX Photo: Ted S. Warren/Associated Press
By Andy Pasztor and
Doug Cameron
Jan. 16, 2020 10:21 am ET

The Federal Aviation Administration’s certification of the Boeing Co. 737 MAX was effective and the plane wouldn’t have been safer if it had been scrutinized as an all-new aircraft, according to an independent panel set up last year to evaluate the troubled jet.

The special committee created by the U.S. Department of Transportation to review the FAA’s safety-approval process backed the continued delegation of some work to aircraft makers, though the committee also called for the agency’s staffing to be expanded to improve its oversight.

The panel—headed by retired Air Force Gen. Darren McDew, former head of the U.S. Transportation Command, and Lee Moak, former president of the Air Line Pilots Association—provided its initial report on Thursday.
Share Your Thoughts

What should the FAA do to boost public confidence in safety oversight of new planes? Join the conversation below.

The six-month study called for a range of improvements including stepped-up analysis of human factors that could lead pilots to act differently in the cockpit versus existing assumptions.

The FAA took five years to certify the 737 MAX 8, the first version of the plane and the one involved in two fatal crashes. That time period is at the lower end of scrutiny of new aircraft types or derivatives.

The MAX was certified as a derivative rather than an all-new plane, the 13th time the FAA has updated an approval first issued in 1967.

The panel said evaluating the MAX as an all-new plane wouldn’t have produced “more rigorous scrutiny” or “a safer airplane.” It said the FAA retained design approval of the flight-control system that has been linked to two fatal MAX crashes.

The plane remains grounded world-wide.

“We will study these recommendations closely as we continue to work with government and industry stakeholders to enhance the certification process,” Boeing said in a statement.

The panel is one of various probes already under way delving into how rigorously FAA officials followed and enforced mandatory standards in endorsing the safety of the planes, which entered service in May 2017.

Justice Department prosecutors, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the DOT inspector general’s office, are looking into whether the plane maker provided incomplete or misleading information to regulators regarding the aircraft.

The FAA has launched a separate inquiry to determine whether certification rules and procedures were properly followed. And the DOT inspector general has launched still another effort, by conducting an audit of FAA decisions regarding 737 MAX certification.

In addition, House and Senate committees embarked on hearings and inquiries looking into certification of the 737 MAX.

[Don Hudson]

Link to the Report:

Administration’sAircraft Certification Process, January 16, 2020

[Guest]

Wall Street expects Boeing to take another big, ugly charge on 737 Max. BofA estimates total cost of crisis as high as $20 billion

PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 17 20207:00 AM ESTUPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

 

Leslie Josephs@LESLIEJOSEPHS

KEY POINTS

• Boeing’s 737 Max crisis worsened with a production shut down, layoffs and scathing internal emails.
• Boeing’s bestselling aircraft have been grounded since March after the second of two crashes that killed 346 people.
• New CEO Dave Calhoun will face investors on his first earnings call on Jan. 29.

 

Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, July 1, 2019.

Lindsey Wasson | Reuters

A year ago, Boeing posted record revenues topping $100 billion with hopes of delivering a chart-topping number of airplanes in 2019, including hundreds of 737 Max jetliners.

The news isn’t going to be so rosy on its fourth-quarter earnings call this year. Those bestselling planes were grounded worldwide in March after the second of two fatal crashes that claimed 346 lives. The crisis cost former CEO Dennis Muilenburg his job, prompted Boeing to suspend production of the planes, drove down orders to the lowest level in decades, hurt its supply chain, and wracked up costs that are now around $10 billion. Wall Street is expecting more bad news.

 

The Jan. 29 earnings call will be the first for new CEO Dave Calhoun, who took the helm on Monday, days after the company released a trove of shocking internal messages that showed employees dissing regulators and airlines and boasting about getting them to approve less time-consuming training. One showed employees complaining that Lion Air, the operator of the first 737 Max that crashed, wanted simulator training for pilots before they flew the planes.

Calhoun is tasked with cleaning up Boeing’s culture, improving employee morale and repairing damaged relationships with regulators and airlines.

“Many of our stakeholders are rightly disappointed in us, and it’s our job to repair these vital relationships,” Calhoun told Boeing employees on his first day. “We’ll do so through a recommitment to transparency and by meeting and exceeding their expectations. We will listen, seek feedback, and respond — appropriately, urgently and respectfully.”

Jeff Windau, industrials analyst at Edward Jones, said he hopes the call will shed some light on the company.

“It would be nice to get some candid comments,” he said. “I’m not expecting a date [of the return to service] but it would be nice to get some indication where they’re at.”

 

Several Wall Street analysts now expect Boeing, which reports full-year and fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 29, to take additional charges related to the troubled airplane. The company took a $5.6 billion pretax charge in July to compensate airlines and other customers for the grounding, which is now in its 11th month.

“They’re going to have to pay more,” said Ron Epstein, aerospace analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He estimates the total cost of the grounding could reach $20 billion — excluding any settlements from lawsuits from crash victims’ families — if the planes return by June or July. Epstein estimates that about 40% of Boeing’s profits last year came from the Max.

Moody’s Investors Service said it was putting Boeing’s debt on a review for a possible downgrade, less than a month after cutting its credit rating by one-notch, as the crisis wears on longer than expected. The lower the credit rating, the more expensive it is for Boeing to borrow. Boeing, which declined to comment on a potential charge, has previously said it would tap the debt markets if it needs more cash to cover the costs of the crisis.

Sheila Kahyaoglu, aerospace and defense analyst at Jefferies, estimated this week that the charges for aircraft customers’ compensation is likely to rise to $11 billion, and that some of that will be reported later this month. That’s assuming the planes return to service in April, she said.

The Wall Street estimates for its earnings vary widely — from a loss of 23 cents a share to a profit of as much as $2.52 a share, according to analysts polled by Refinitiv. On average, analysts expect the Chicago-based company to report a profit of $1.53 a share — a 72% decline from a year earlier. They estimated a more than 26% drop in revenue to $20.8 billion.

Earlier this month, Boeing threw airline customers another curve ball: It’s recommending additional simulator training for pilots on the Max, a reverse of its previous stance and a step that promises to further delay the planes return to service and drive up costs.

As of Thursday, all U.S. airlines with Maxes in their fleets — American, Southwest and United — have pulled the planes from their schedules until early June, a delay that’s threatening to last until the peak travel season of late spring and the summer.

Analysts are also looking for news on how Boeing will manage its supply chain. Spirit Aerosystems, which makes fuselages and other parts for the planes, announced initial job cuts of 2,800 people last week. Moody’s downgraded its debt to junk territory.

Even the planned pause in production won’t stop the cash drain and will cost Boeing $1 billion a month, estimates J.P. Morgan.

“It doesn’t give you the warm and fuzzies when Spirit lays off 2,800 people,” said BofA’s Epstein. Suppliers are walking a tightrope with the 737 Max, because they don’t want to lack workers when Boeing can resume production. “It’s a tight job market and I’m sure there are a lot to companies that would like to hire them,” Epstein added.

Investors are also closely watching Calhoun for cues about Boeing’s bigger picture. The company has faced problems with its KC-46 refueling tanker. Because it’s hobbled by the 737 Max issues, Boeing hasn’t been able to move forward with a new middle-market airplane, giving a bigger lead to rival Airbus, which recently won orders for its forthcoming long-range, single-aisle plane from airlines including American and United. And the scrutiny of the Max could become more time consuming when regulators review its wide-body Boeing 777X.

[FA@AC]

This is probably a dumb question, but does anyone have sufficient insight into the recertification process to hazard an updated guess as to when the FAA might clear the MAX to fly again?  The journalists who follow Boeing seem to have given up on providing estimates.  Can't blame them.

[mrlupin]

The various regulators from around the world have different issues with the aircraft. The FAA is probably walking a tight line trying to keep all the foreign regulators happy and trying to find a safe solution.

It's not a simple guess... It might be a gradual return to service (ie US only) but I'm sure the FAA would prefer to have a full review done. If one more b737 Max goes down it would be catastrophic for both the FAA and Boeing.

[rudder]

June would not be unrealistic for the FAA. Other agencies would take longer or perhaps add additional conditions.

My guess is that TC will insist on pilot training (including Sim). Thankfully for AC, it has primary access to 2 MAX sims in YYZ.

I am certain that AC would like to see it back in service for summer 2020.

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, rudder said:

June would not be unrealistic for the FAA. Other agencies would take longer or perhaps add additional conditions.

My guess is that TC will insist on pilot training (including Sim). Thankfully for AC, it has primary access to 2 MAX sims in YYZ.

I am certain that AC would like to see it back in service for summer 2020.

Perhaps in light of this, 2021 or never?

Boeing says it is addressing new 737 Max software issue discovered in technical review

PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 17 20202:27 PM ESTUPDATED MOMENTS AGO

KEY POINTS

• Boeing is addressing a new software issue discovered during a technical review of the proposed update to the grounded Boeing 737 Max in Iowa last weekend.
• Officials said the issue relates to a software power-up monitoring function that verifies some system monitors are operating correctly.
• The monitor check is prompted by a software command at airplane or system power up, and will set the appropriate indication if maintenance is required, company officials added.

 

 

WATCH NOW

VIDEO02:00

Boeing discovers new 737 Max software issues

 

Boeing said on Friday it is addressing a new software issue discovered in Iowa last weekend during a technical review of the proposed update to the grounded Boeing 737 Max, a development that could further delay the plane’s return to service.

“We are making necessary updates,” Boeing said in a statement. Officials at the planemaker said the issue relates to a software power-up monitoring function that verifies some system monitors are operating correctly.

 

One of the monitors was not being initiated correctly, officials said. The monitor check is prompted by a software command at airplane or system power up, and will set the appropriate indication if maintenance is required, company officials added.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not immediately comment. ABC News reported the issue early Friday.

Boeing is halting production of the 737 Max this month following the grounding in March of its best-selling plane after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people.

U.S. regulators are waiting for an update from Boeing on how they will resolve the issue. A U.S. official briefed on the matter said Friday the FAA is now unlikely to approve the plane’s return until March but it could take until April.

This week, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines both said they would extend cancellations of Max flights until early June.

 

Also this month, the FAA and Boeing said they were reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 Max. Officials said the review is looking at whether two bundles of wiring are too close together, which could lead to a short circuit and potentially result in a crash if pilots did not respond appropriately.

U.S. and European aviation safety regulators met with Boeing in an effort to complete a 737 Max software documentation audit that was begun in November. Documentation requirements are central to certification for increasingly complex aircraft software, and can become a source of delay

[deicer]

Issues at Boeing everywhere...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-17/boeing-s-calhoun-warned-by-air-force-that-it-s-not-happy-either

Air Force Warns Boeing’s New CEO That It’s Not Happy Either

The Air Force’s top military officer has sent Boeing Co.’s new CEO a blunt reminder that the ill-fated 737 Max passenger jet isn’t the only troubled project he has to rescue.

 

 

There’s also the company’s failure to provide a combat-ready refueling tanker, nine years after Boeing won a competition for the $44 billion project.

 

 

“We require your attention and improved focus on the KC-46” tanker, General David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, warned in a letter four days before Dave Calhoun took over as chief executive officer of the company. “The Air Force continues to accept deliveries of a tanker incapable of performing its primary operational mission.”

 

 

Calhoun has been entrusted with turning around a company that is reeling from a pair of crashes of the Max that killed 346 people and resulted in the grounding of its best selling jet, sent its stock into a swoon and raised questions about its commitment to safety.

“As one of your largest military customers, we also rely on a relationship of trust and confidence in not only Boeing’s products” but also the long-term sustainment effort needed for equipment that “our warfighters require,” Goldfein said in the Jan. 9 letter made available to Bloomberg News.

Calhoun is leading a once-proud company whose reputation for engineering prowess is now in tatters. On top of the grounding of its best-selling plane, Boeing has suffered delays to its 777X jetliner and an embarrassing mishap that caused its new space capsule to miss a rendezvous with the International Space Station.

The letter got Calhoun’s attention: He met with Goldfein on Wednesday, according to a Boeing official familiar with the issue. The same day at the White House signing ceremony for the initial trade agreement with China, President Donald Trump singled out Calhoun, quipping that “he’s got a very easy company to run. He just took over Boeing.” The president added, “Let me tell you, it’s not your fault, you just got there.”

Larry Chambers, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, declined to comment on the meeting with Goldfein or the letter. “Boeing is fully committed to addressing the Air Force concerns with the KC-46 program and devoting resources required to make the KC-46 fully mission capable,” he said.

Brigadier General Ed Thomas, a spokesman for Goldfein, said “at this point the chief intends for any communications with our industry partners to be between himself and them.”

Multiple Cameras

In the letter, Goldfein expressed concern about the tanker’s crucial “Remote Vision System” and “additional unmet requirements.” The plane has multiple cameras used by an airman sitting at a console behind the cockpit to guide a 59-foot-long extended boom to connect with a plane needing fuel and then to monitor the procedure.

Shadows or the glare of the sun can hamper the cameras’ view on occasion, possibly resulting in scraping the plane being refueled or difficulty in performing the operation, according to the Air Force. Boeing officials have said they’ve deployed a software solution expected to overcome the main hurdle.

Despite agreement on a plan to repair the Remote Vision System, Goldfein said in the letter, “to date, progress has been unsatisfactory. More than a year has elapsed and Boeing has yet to provide” a design “that instills confidence in the way forward.”

“None of the timelines” in the agreement “has been met,” he said, “and Boeing’s latest proposal slips delivery of the final fix to the warfighter by over two years,” which he called unacceptable.

Thirty Tankers

The Air Force has taken delivery of 30 tankers to start aircrew and logistics training even as Boeing continues to work on fixes. The service last year started to withhold a percentage of final payment per aircraft that’s now at about $800 million, according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek.

“If we elect to continue accepting aircraft deliveries at the current rate” the service will possess 70 “partially mission-capable” tankers by next year, Goldfein wrote.

The tanker also has started combat testing conducted by Pentagon evaluators and so far “over 500 deficiencies have been tracked to date and we’ve only just begun” that evaluation, Goldfein wrote. A Boeing official said none of the deficiencies are of the most serious category.

Goldfein told Calhoun he expects lawmakers to question during fiscal 2021 budget hearings why the Air Force continues to take delivery of an aircraft “not meeting multiple key performance parameters and a host of other requirements.”

Without a change in course, Goldfein wrote, “we will not be able to answer positively and we will have to acknowledge our serious concerns in two areas -- trust and safety.”

[QFE]

RE: AC simulators, anyone know if they are being rented out to other airlines? 

[rudder]

1 minute ago, QFE said:

RE: AC simulators, anyone know if they are being rented out to other airlines? 

The YYZ based MAX simulators belong to CAE but AC is the primary customer.

I believe that unused time can be rented out by CAE. The second MAX Sim is in the non-AC side of the YYZ CAE facility.

[Guest]

Boeing’s Max troubles to spill into broader economy

 

• Calgary Herald
• 18 Jan 2020
• MICHAEL SASSO

ATLANTA Leaders in Wichita, Kansas, suffered a series of gut punches in recent weeks after their biggest employer, Spirit Aerosystems, said it would stop working on the troubled Boeing 737 Max jetliner and later announced 2,800 layoffs in its home city.

City manager Robert Layton is sitting through two or three meetings a week on what to expect, as fallout from the Max’s temporary shutdown ripples through the aircraft’s 600 mostly U.S. suppliers. Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas promptly called Boeing ’s new chief executive and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to urge them to get the Max flying again. The new mayor of Wichita — a city of 380,000 — just took office on Monday, three days after Spirit announced its mass layoffs.

Boeing is the largest manufacturer and exporter in the U.S. Its stumble, which started with the fatal crashes of two 737 Max aircraft and culminated in the grounding of its best-selling Max fleet last March, could have repercussions for the entire U.S. economy. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the company’s problems could cut U.S. gross domestic product by half a percentage point this year — a figure repeated by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

While Wichita tries to suss out what’s to come, aviation supply chain experts warn that the numerous suppliers could fail causing major job losses if the U.S. industrial titan allows the Max program’s shutdown to linger much past this month. Boeing shares have fallen about 25 per cent from a record high on March 1.

“I would not be surprised that smaller suppliers end up going out of business, because they’re two, three levels down,” said Gary Weissel at consultancy Tronos Aviation Consulting. “The guys above them can’t take deliveries.”

That could prove a hurdle for Trump as he makes his case for reelection on the strength of the economy and his record on job creation, although Boeing’s biggest supplier bases in Kansas and Washington are in deeply red and blue states, respectively.

“With the shutdown, there could be political pressure exerted in the FAA’S direction to get things moving,” said Kevin Michaels, a managing director at consultancy Aerodynamic Advisory.

So far, there’s been relatively little bloodletting at Boeing’s suppliers through the Max’s 10-month grounding. Several Max suppliers didn’t return calls to discuss the potential impact while the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance, a collection of aviation companies, declined to comment.

“We are working with local and state organizations to help provide information about available opportunities and resources to employees who need them,” a Spirit spokeswoman said.

Still, there have been relatively few job cuts to date because, until now, Boeing had kept producing 42 Max planes a month, down from its previous rate of 52 a month. That probably will change now that Boeing suspended production of the model this month, analysts said.

Moody’s Investors Service in a Jan. 10 report identified 24 Max suppliers whose credit it had previously rated. Big suppliers like Precision Castparts Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. are best suited to withstand the shutdown, while smaller companies could face the most financial stress, according to Moody’s.

“Each supplier will face a delicate balancing act involving efforts to quickly reduce overhead costs,” while making sure it’s able to ramp up again when Boeing restarts production, Moody’s wrote.

Boeing is talking with suppliers about ways that it can mitigate their challenges through “delivery rate options,” a company spokesman said, without giving further details.

In Wichita, community leaders are trying to diversify their economy so it’s not so dependent on aviation. Aerospace hit its peak in Wichita in 2008 at more than 40,000 jobs, but by 2017 employment had fallen by a third to about 26,000.

The 2,800 layoffs at Spirit, which makes aircraft fuselages and other major components, is expected to cut into the area’s wages by around US$220 million, although unemployment insurance would offset some of that, said Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University.

The loss of such valuable jobs would deal a blow to the Wichita economy. Average aerospace positions there pays US$80,000 a year, almost double the average.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, rudder said:

The YYZ based MAX simulators belong to CAE but AC is the primary customer.

I believe that unused time can be rented out by CAE. The second MAX Sim is in the non-AC side of the YYZ CAE facility.

I would be surprised if AC has not already reserved all the available time.  Competition being competition.  

[anonymous]

ummm, i think you'll find that the two 737 Max sims are Air Canada sims....the third one on the CAE side is owned by CAE but AC is the primary customer...

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, anonymous said:

ummm, i think you'll find that the two 737 Max sims are Air Canada sims....the third one on the CAE side is owned by CAE but AC is the primary customer...

better yet for AirCanada if the Max ever gets cleared and if AC continues on with the plan to keep them.  

[Turbofan]

It is my understanding that even the 737 Max simulator does not currently simulate MCAS.  Remember MCAS was something no one knew about.  Why would it be simulated? The current sim training in the Max tries to mimic MCAS with multiple trim runaways. The NG sim can do this.  The problem I’m told with this workaround is that MCAS trims much quicker.  

I am presuming here that new sim/Max software is part of Max recertification and training program. If this is the case it would also make sense to me that Boeing produce an MCAS module for the NG simulators.  Flip a switch in an NG sim and simulate Max MCAS.

I find it hard to believe that Boeing would not have a plan for the lack of Max sims.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Turbofan said:

It is my understanding that even the 737 Max simulator does not currently simulate MCAS.  Remember MCAS was something no one knew about.  Why would it be simulated? The current sim training in the Max tries to mimic MCAS with multiple trim runaways. The NG sim can do this.  The problem I’m told with this workaround is that MCAS trims much quicker.  

I am presuming here that new sim/Max software is part of Max recertification and training program. If this is the case it would also make sense to me that Boeing produce an MCAS module for the NG simulators.  Flip a switch in an NG sim and simulate Max MCAS.

I find it hard to believe that Boeing would not have a plan for the lack of Max sims.

I imagine the sims will simulate MCAS when a software update is available.

[deicer]

I guess they figure people really are that easily distracted...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/boeing-told-to-rename-max-to-allay-concerns-once-flight-resumes-1.1376504

Boeing told to rename Max to allay concerns once flight resumes

Boeing Co. should rename its 737 Max to help deflect travellers’ safety concerns once the grounded jet returns to the skies, plane leasing-industry veteran Steven Udvar-Hazy said.

The Max brand is damaged following two fatal crashes last year, and there’s no reason for Boeing to retain it, Udvar-Hazy, the founder and chairman of Air Lease Corp., said Monday at a conference in Dublin.

“We’ve asked Boeing to get rid of that word Max,” Udvar-Hazy said. “I think that word Max should go down in the history books as a bad name for an aircraft.”

Since there’s no reference to the Max brand as such in Boeing documentation submitted to regulators, the company can instead simply market the model according to the numeric variant, such as the 737-8 or 737-10, he said.

Renaming the Max will help address public reluctance to fly on the plane, especially in more superstitious markets, according to Udvar-Hazy. He said airlines are working to understand what sort of customer reluctance or defections to other models and carriers they might face, and for how long.

“Is it going to be for two months, six months, is it going to be different in different parts of the world?” he said. “Will people in the U.S. after a few months forget about the accidents and say, ‘Oh, it’s just another 737?’ Are there going to be parts of the world where people are maybe more superstitious and will take longer for them to erase that stigma?”

Boeing is working with the Federal Aviation Authority and airline regulators around the world to re-certify the plane. Airlines generally expect commercial flights to begin around mid-year.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s former chief executive officer, said in June that he saw no need to drop the Max brand. That was after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter in April that in Boeing’s shoes he’d rename the plane.

Muilenburg was replaced as chief by David Calhoun, a General Electric Co. veteran, effective Jan. 13.

[boestar]

On 1/18/2020 at 11:46 AM, Turbofan said:

It is my understanding that even the 737 Max simulator does not currently simulate MCAS.  Remember MCAS was something no one knew about.  Why would it be simulated? The current sim training in the Max tries to mimic MCAS with multiple trim runaways. The NG sim can do this.  The problem I’m told with this workaround is that MCAS trims much quicker.  

I am presuming here that new sim/Max software is part of Max recertification and training program. If this is the case it would also make sense to me that Boeing produce an MCAS module for the NG simulators.  Flip a switch in an NG sim and simulate Max MCAS.

I find it hard to believe that Boeing would not have a plan for the lack of Max sims.

One would think that all of the flight control software would have been provided to CAE to simulate the function as expected on the aircraft.  Likely that functionality is simulated but the failure mode is not.

If the simulator behaviour deviates from tha tof the actual aircraft, how can Cat D be supported?

 

[Turbofan]

23 minutes ago, boestar said:

One would think that all of the flight control software would have been provided to CAE to simulate the function as expected on the aircraft.  Likely that functionality is simulated but the failure mode is not.

If the simulator behaviour deviates from tha tof the actual aircraft, how can Cat D be supported?

 

Boestar,

Your question is above my pay grade.  All I know is what Max pilots at AC have told me. The AC Max simulator as of last fall does not replicate MCAS. Obviously this will be addressed with a training and software update.  That would be required anyway as MCAS behaviour has been altered.  

My point was simply challenging the notion that there are not enough Max simulators to get the Max flying rapidly.  The software update could be added to NG simulators as well.  Flip a switch and train Max-8 MCAS differences.

[Don Hudson]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/business/boeing-737-accidents.html
How Boeing’s Responsibility in a Deadly Crash ‘Got Buried’
Duplication - please view this topic here:

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Don Hudson

[FA@AC]

I wonder if Boeing is now being conservative in its estimates or if the grounding will continue yet a while.

I suggest not watching the video as the interviewer is incredibly shouty and annoying.  The article includes the salient points.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/21/boeing-doesnt-expect-regulators-to-sign-off-on-737-max-until-june-or-july.html

Edited January 21, 2020 by FA@AC