737-MAX and how not to run an airplane company

[JuiceBeetle]

Messages show Boeing employees knew in 2016 of problems that turned deadly on the 737 Max

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/text-messages-show-boeing-employees-knew-in-2016-of-problems-that-turned-deadly-on-the-737-max/2019/10/18/8578c990-f1ca-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

Mass-murder by negligence: profit before safety

[ericbarbour]

In a letter to Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg on Friday, FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said: “I expect your explanation immediately.”

Lol

[JuiceBeetle]

Juan Browne again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY1pl8FZHws
737 Max Hearings Today 29 Oct 2019
The comments........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZO7sIbWrX8
737 Max hearings on Capitol Hill 29 Oct -Analysis and Opinion

3:40 "Mcas is put into place in order to make the 737 max design feel and handle like previous iterations of the 737.
Had Boeing decided to drop the 737 design and or at least get a separate type certificate for the 737 max Mcas would have not been needed at all."

The root of all trouble.

[JuiceBeetle]

https://samchui.com/2019/11/09/american ... cellation/

American Airlines and Southwest, two major customers for the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, announced that they will further extend the cancellation of the aircraft until March 2020, almost a year after the grounding.

https://samchui.com/2019/10/23/max-cris ... nes-fired/

Boeing has ousted Kevin McAllister, its CEO of the Commercial Airplanes division, as the crisis involving the company’s 737 MAX continues to cloud Boeing’s future.

[JuiceBeetle]

The 2018 Southwest SW1380 accident's (left-engine fan-blade out event, window broken, depressurization, 1 passenger mortality) NTSB report:
https://youtu.be/gWx4TWrPji8?t=742
Very detailed and technical, almost not boring. Worth 30 minutes (the technical presentations part).

The 737NG, just like the 737max required design compromises because of the short landing gears. The engines' cowling is flattened on the bottom to achieve the necessary ground clearance. At the bottom of the engine casing a "radial restraint fitting" holds the flattened shape of the cowling.
In a fateful turn of events, the broken fan-blade hit the engine casing at the bottom, where the radial restraint fitting is found. The fitting transferred the energy of the fan-blade into the cowling, which in turn broke apart, departed the engine and hit the fuselage at the window, which broke, causing the death of one passenger.

A small design compromise is part of the "chain of events" that caused this mortality. The max has a big design compromise for the same 50 year old reason: short legs.

[Strelnikov]

The 2018 Southwest SW1380 accident's (left-engine fan-blade out event, window broken, depressurization, 1 passenger mortality) NTSB report:
https://youtu.be/gWx4TWrPji8?t=742
Very detailed and technical, almost not boring. Worth 30 minutes (the technical presentations part).

The 737NG, just like the 737max required design compromises because of the short landing gears. The engines' cowling is flattened on the bottom to achieve the necessary ground clearance. At the bottom of the engine casing a "radial restraint fitting" holds the flattened shape of the cowling.
In a fateful turn of events, the broken fan-blade hit the engine casing at the bottom, where the radial restraint fitting is found. The fitting transferred the energy of the fan-blade into the cowling, which in turn broke apart, departed the engine and hit the fuselage at the window, which broke, causing the death of one passenger.

A small design compromise is part of the "chain of events" that caused this mortality. The max has a big design compromise for the same 50 year old reason: short legs.

I think they all have the short landing gear because you don't depart from an airliner onto the tarmac, there are extending gantry walkways that form a fake airlock between the aircraft and the terminal, and those would have to be modified if there was a difference in aircraft height at the door. The whole walkway thing is there to keep you from being rained or snowed on, it's a quasi-frippery, but they are now integral to these airports because they are on the second stories of the terminals. You have to build your infrastructure around your aircraft, no matter if it's civilian or military - if it got out that you had to take the stairs down on a 737NG because the jet is too tall for the gantry, certain passengers (cane users, acrophobics, the "bum knee" people, wheelchair users, etc.) would blanch. So the passenger died for uniformity.

[JuiceBeetle]

The airport walkways have an adjustable last segment that can be lowered and raised. The same walkways attach to the 737, the Airbus 320, and a big range of aircraft types.
Originally the 737 Classic was designed with short legs to facilitate luggage loading and easy boarding from the tarmac on small/undeveloped airports before terminals became so widespread.
The 737 NG and MAX still has the short legs for only one reason: to avoid a redesign of the fuselage and the necessary re-certification. Longer landing gears might require extensive design changes, possibly a new type rating: a very significant investment in terms of time (years) and money. With the MAX avoiding pilot re-certification for a new type rating became another motivating factor to keep the short legs and suffer the technical consequences. It's all about saving on a new design and certification.

[JuiceBeetle]

[ericbarbour]

As I posted on my blog, the 787 is having a little problem with titanium slivers and other "minor quality issues"

https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/ ... reamliner/

that little item spread thru blogverse quickly (but STILL has not gotten substantial media attention)
https://boingboing.net/2019/12/02/razor ... vings.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/busi ... blems.html

It's not "news" either, here's a report from May in the local newspaper
https://www.postandcourier.com/business ... 416b1.html

Side note: ever seen this Boeing employee's blog?
https://www.thelastboeinginspector.com/
He stopped updating it last year. This is the whistleblower who was prosecuted at Boeing's direction for leaking documents back in 2006, which is when he started his blog:
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/arti ... 278964.php
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... rker-case/
Even after his trial ended in a hung jury, Boeing still leaned on him until he caved:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... tles-case/
Ah, he died in February. That would be a good reason for a blog being abandoned, eh? "Lucky Boeing", eh?
https://rembautimes.com/2019/03/11/the- ... e-not-new/

[ericbarbour]

This is actually hilarious, in a very dark way. Since I posted this story on my blog last year, I have now noticed that the NTSB is literally lecturing the FAA for "sloppy work" in commercial aviation safety. This time it was the stupid "shoe selfie" helicopter business, which resulted in 5 people drowning in the East River.

https://www.wired.com/story/ntsb-flynyo ... on-report/