Revised Design of 737 Max has Undergone 1300 Test Flights: Boeing

Boeing said it had undertaken 1,300 test flights besids 75,000 engineering and test hours of the revised design of its 737 Max aircraft which had received intensive internal and regulatory review since 2019.

Once the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators have determined the MAX can safely return to service, it will be one of the most thoroughly scrutinized aircraft in history, Boeing said in a release.

It also admitted that it had learned many hard lessons as a company from the accidents of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, and from the mistakes we have made. The company was reacting to the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T & I) Committee Report on 737 MAX that was released today.

Multiple committees, experts, and governmental authorities have examined issues related to the MAX, and we have incorporated many of their recommendations, as well as the results of our own internal reviews, into the 737 MAX and the overall airplane design process, it said.

 We have set up a new safety organization to enhance and standardize safety practices, restructured our engineering organization to give engineers a stronger voice and a more direct line to share concerns with top management, created a permanent Aerospace Safety Committee of our Board of Directors as well as expanded the role of the Safety Promotion Center, the release said.

Meanwhile the House T & I Committee report has condemned both Boeing and the FAA for safety failures. The report argued that Boeing emphasized profits over safety and that the agency (FAA) granted the company too much sway over  its own oversight.

The two accidents that led the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX were the result of “horrific culmination” of engineering flaws, mismanagement and a severe lack of federal oversight. The report highlighted a design flaw for sending the plane into nosedives as the engines on the Max are larger and placed higher as compared to earlier versions of the 737. A software, known as the MCAS was supposed to correct this anamoly but it took data from sensors which themselves were faulty.