Originally Posted by
groundbum
so will the software fix, and slightly updated training, be enough to get the MAX back into revenue service?
I predict after ET not. It's apparent even with MCAS turned off, the cockpit does not return to peace and tranquility where average ability pilots can regain control and land. It's apparent from the ET interim report that a lot more was going on in the cockpit, and that was it was beyond the two pilots to get it back together, mainly due to excess speed and aerodynamic forces making proper trim next to impossible without some, as yet, untrained yoyo, manoeuvre.
I would suggest no regulator would be willing to pass the MAX back into service based on a patch and minor training update.
G
+1
The 737 safety philosophy means that it turns into a conventional stick and rudder aircraft once you turn the AP off. And that with redundant left and right seat set of controls. The PF assumes in AP off mode that he has full authority on the flight controls and surfaces. There are automatic flap retract in over speed left but that does not reduce his controll over the aircraft.
If you brake that philosophy by introducing “features” overriding PF control inputs they need to be full FBW worth with all fail safe features needed for a FBW control.
I do not see how Boeing can implement that easily into the 737 MAX.
With the two accidents it came out, that the manual trim wheel can not be actuated manually in a high elevator deflection and high speed situation. That aerobatic manovering is the cure for that can unlikely be certified for a transport category aircraft.
With 50 years of 737 operation that was not a big problem because nobody was as stupid as the MCAS system and gave full 5 seconds of AND trim in an already peculiar nose down situation close to the ground.
In a fighter jet in such a case you might invert the aircraft and rollercoaster the stuck trim out. But that is not a solution for a transport category aircraft.