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A comment on Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with media onboard. Parent comment

Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by _ph_ on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @06:04PM (#25282979)
Considering that a new design would take like 10 years to get into production, how would that have been an immediate solution for Boeing? They need to be able to sell more 737 until a new design is ready, and no one wants that to be rushed. While I didn't hear anyting about a new design, I sincerely hope they are at it already though.
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Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by rjsw on Thursday December 03, 2020 @07:02AM (#25288037)
They could start with the 757, it doesn't have to be a completely new design, wikipedia suggests they are looking at this.
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Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by brianwawok on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @10:21PM (#25284954)
Can they not make more of the previous design? Or is 100% of production capacity 737 max
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Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by _ph_ on Thursday December 03, 2020 @04:48AM (#25287327)
I don't think previous iterations of the 737 were fundamentally safer. As there were probably other changes done to the 737 Max beyond the different engines, like improving the overall build, I do think that the fixed 737 Max should be safer than any other 737.

The issue with the Max was, that a software, which should improve the handling in extreme situations, kicked in in normal conditions and the pilots failed to handle this (runaway stabilizer procedure). And indeed, the software for the MCAS was really badly designed, which has been fixed now and by now every 737 pilot should be aware how the two crashes could have been prevented by the right crew reaction. Both of this should mean that these accidents won't happen again.

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Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by l33tman on Thursday December 03, 2020 @06:20AM (#25287817)
That's true but the lingering issue is that if Boeing and the FAA collaborated in pushing the broken design through certification, how many other issues can and will they cover up that the pilots don't know about? I think most want this systematic problem to get fixed as well, the MCAS at this point is as you say hopefully solved..
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Re:Boeing's upgraded 737 Max completes first flight with med... by topspin on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @11:24PM (#25285359)
> Can they not make more of the previous design?

MAX exists as a response to competition. One may assume the previous design is no longer competitive. And no, the body count isn't being considered; fuel efficiency, capacity and leveraging existing training are among the considerations.

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