From what I've read, Flight Global News has stated "Boeing added MCAS to the 737 Max because that aircraft has slightly different flight characteristics from the earlier-generation 737NG." They also described these flight characteristics as "interesting" in another article. The Air Current describes the addition of MCAS was “to compensate for some unique aircraft handling characteristics during it’s (sic) Part 25 Certification and (to) help pilots bring the nose down in the event the jet’s AoA drifted too high when flying manually…”
I'm sort of reading "between the lines" here, but that doesn't sound like these "characteristics" would lead to some sort of catastrophic failure in the absence of MCAS. Sounds more like a fix for something minimally disruptive if unsustained. IDK?
Last edited by climber314; 15th Dec 2018 at 22:43.