Originally Posted by
weemonkey
" the whole raison d'être for MCAS is to modify stick forces when pulling back"
Is it? That seems to be in contradiction with everything I have read on the media.
That's because the media is clueless. The problem Boeing had with Max was that it didn't provide the same tactile feedback as NG (and other 737s) at high AoA, which is required for (grandfather?) certification. The reason is that the feel system could not produce enough force. In addition, Boeing promised to deliver Max which required no sim training to transition from NG. Nothing less, nothing more.
The very bright "solution" for the above problems from Boeing was to move the stab up to 6 units (from original 2 or so which were "not enough") in order to produce additional force on the stick. Yes, the bright heads at Boeing used one of the most essential flight control surfaces just to produce feedback force. Sending the plane straight to the ground in the process is just an overlooked side effect. Ooopsie. Well at least MCAS provided great (false!) tactile feedback of supposedly high AoA in the process - which was never there in the first place (a single faulty AoA vane).
Yes. Read it again. Let it sink.
Now imagine how a jury is going to react to that once Boing is sued by the victims families.