Originally Posted by
Bend alot
Why was the "Shocker Alert" - MCAS now active down to M.2 said.
The interesting part here is: Why are they surprised MCAS is active down to M.2? From all that has been said before MCAS was designed as a patch to get a positive stick force gradient at low airspeeds when at high AOA the engine nacelles produce lift and a large ANU moment. Therefore it would need to operate at the slowest part of the operating envelope down to stall speed. 230kt should be above minimum clean even at higher mass.
So far we where told that MCAS was initially designed to work only at very low speeds. Later on, during test flights, they discovered they also need it at higher airspeeds with even more authority.
Therefore, either MCAS was initially designed to work at higher speeds only, or he actually meant, he was surprised to see MCAS active UP to M.2 and not down to M.2. When that is the case, his statement that he lied to the regulators makes sense as well.