Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
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ET302 used the Cut-Out switches to stop MCAS
By Bjorn Fehrm
Note: The article offered a Video as an example of the effects of not trimming to neutral before hitting Cut-Off. After reviewing the effects of the video in the context of the article, MentourPilot decided we should leave the text but not include the video any longer. MentourPilot’s YouTube channel is an independent initiative to offer the public correct and positive information of all the work which is behind their safe travel in the skies. In the sensitive situation of an ongoing investigation of the crash of ET302, where not all facts are on the table, he concluded after discussing the impression the video left with a colleague, it was not in line with his intent of setting up the channel. In the haste of the change we took this as his company not wanting the video aired, it was not. As facts in the ET302 case comes forward we will discuss with MentourPilot if this situation changes.
April 03, 2019, © Leeham News: The crew of Ethiopian Airlines ET302, which crashed with 157 people on board, used the prescribed Stabilator Trim Cut-Out switches to stop MCAS, according to an article by Wall Street Journal today. Yet still, they crashed. We’ve had the information this could indeed be the case for several days, but we didn’t want to speculate in such a sensitive matter.
The Wall Street article cites information coming from the investigation. By it, we can now reveal how it’s possible the aircraft can crash despite using the Cut-Out switches. To verify, we ran it all in a simulator together with MentourPilot Youtube channel over the last days.
Figure 1. ET302 ground speed as long as FlightRadar24 could follow the flight. Source: FR24.
Returning the MAX to service
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Introduction
April 1, 2019, © Leeham News: Returning the Boeing 737 MAX to services following its grounding should reasonably be a straight-forward affair, if past groundings were examples.
But, to mix a metaphor, there are plenty of unchartered waters with this grounding that stand ready to complicate matters.
Bloomberg reported Saturday that Europe’s FAA equivalent, EASA, skipped last week’s Boeing meeting of 200 pilots and regulators.
Summary:
- US FAA is no longer the leader or gold standard.
- EASA, Transport Canada want their own reviews.
- China, the first to ground the MAX, also suspended plane-by-plane certification.
Pontifications: I don’t know what to make of this
By Scott Hamilton
April 1, 2019, © Leeham News: One can’t help but think, a lot, about the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes and the facts that Boeing created the system, linked it to one sensor, not two, didn’t tell the airlines pilots about it, didn’t include it in pilot manuals, didn’t have a safety alert system as standard equipment, initially blamed the Lion Air pilots and reportedly lobbied Donald Trump not to ground the airplanes.
But my thoughts haven’t stopped here.
WTO appeals court rules against Boeing; Airbus claims minimum $15bn in harm
March 28, 2019, © Leeham News: The World Trade Organization appeals panel today upheld European claims that Boeing received billions of dollars in illegal tax breaks and subsidies from the US Department of Defense, Washington State, Kansas and South Carolina.
From a previous set of rulings, the WTO also agreed that the US and Boeing failed to cure illegal tax breaks used under a federal program called Foreign Sales Corporations of FSC (pronounced fisk) dating to before 2006.
The adverse decision comes at a time when Boeing is on the defensive over two fatal accidents of its 737 MAX program and criticism over the development and approval of the MCAS stall recovery system believed by some to be at the heart of two crashes.
MCAS upgrade requires half-hour of pilot training
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Introduction
March 28, 2019, © Leeham News: Boeing 737 MAX pilots learning about the revised software upgrade to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) will need a half hour of computer-based training (CBT), the company told the media yesterday in a briefing.
Pilots of the 737 NG who have not yet made the transition to the MAX also have to be trained on the MCAS now. Boeing did not specify if this will take longer than those already trained on the MAX.
- Related article: Boeing presents MCAS software fix details
Summary
- No estimate to MAX return to service.
- Waiting for investigations of the crashes.
- More information for pilots.
Boeing presents MCAS fix to pilots, regulators and media
By Bjorn Fehrm
March 27, 2018, © Leeham News.: Boeing presented the software fix to the MCAS problem in a press briefing ahead of meeting 200 Pilots and Regulators in Seattle today for a briefing around the 737 MAX update.
Here is what Boeing presented in its briefing to media:
Figure 1. Pilot’s Primary Flight Display with modifications after the software update. Source: Wikipedia and Leeham Co.
Pontifications: Boeing NewCo exec, Slattery, faces challenges
By Scott Hamilton
- Our Monday paywall will appear at 6am Tuesday, PDT.
March 25, 2019, © Leeham News: Boeing last week announced the executive leadership for the joint venture with Embraer, the as-yet unnamed company that is generically called NewCo.
Separately, Embraer announced the departure at the end of next month of Embraer’s parent CEO, Paulo Cesar, a move that was expected.
Cesar was with Embraer for 22 years in various positions. We was president and CEO of EMB’s Commercial Aviation division and launched the E2 program in 2013.
Bjorn’s Corner: Why did Ethiopian Airlines ET302 and Lion Air JT610 crash?
By Bjorn Fehrm
March 22, 2019, ©. Leeham News: Last week we covered what we knew about the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash.
In the passing week, more facts have been revealed. We also have the first lead why both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights finally dived to the ground.
Figure 1. The FR24 speed curve of the ET302 flight. Source: FlightRadar24.
Boeing didn’t want to re-engine the 737–but had design standing by
March 20, 2019, © Leeham News: With nearly 400 Boeing 737 MAXes grounded across the globe, few will remember that Boeing didn’t really want to do the MAX.
Officials in 2010-2011 engineered the MAX as a fallback airplane in case its hand was forced by Airbus as it first pondered and then launched the A320neo.
Jim Albaugh, then president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, didn’t want to re-engine the 737. He wanted a new airplane. Seattle Times photo.
The president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes at the time, Jim Albaugh, and the head of the 737 program then, Mike Bair, talked down the thought of re-engining the 737 even as it was developed. Albaugh wanted a new, clean sheet airplane to replace the 737.
When Airbus was about to land American Airlines with a huge order for the A320 family, both the ceo and neo, Boeing’s hand was forced. Within 48 hours, Jim McNerney, Albaugh’s boss, made the decision to go forward with what would become the MAX.
LNA dug into its archives for recorded interviews, transcripts and events with Albaugh and Bair. What follows paints the picture of Boeing’s view at the time about the 737 re-engining. LNA also spoke last year with a former Boeing engineer who worked on the MAX program. This interview was before the Lion Air crash in October.
Pontifications: Fluid, dynamic events upend MAX story
Special Edition
By Scott Hamilton
March 20, 2019, © Leeham Co: I’ve been covering or employed in commercial aviation since 1979. I’m an aviation historian buff.
I’ve read all about the groundings of the Douglas DC-6, Lockheed Constellation, Martin 202 and de Havilland Comet. I read about how the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t ground the Lockheed Electra, choosing operating restrictions instead.
I lived through the grounding of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Boeing 787. As a reporter, I walked through the debris of the American Airlines DC-10 crash that led to the grounding. I went to the crash scene of the Delta Air Lines Boeing 727 at D/FW Airport and I’ve covered many, many crashes through reporting and as a commentator.
I’ve never seen anything evolve in air accidents as has evolved in the Boeing 737 MAX investigations.