Originally Posted by
Uplinker
Is EICAS essential, and is that cost for its certification, or the whole package?
Because one imagines they can use the EICAS equipment already developed for other Boeings - reprogrammed for the '73. Or is it not that simple - would all the cabled hydro-mechanical flight control system need to be changed as well?
Ultimately though, the 737 airframe is a design cul-de-sac: old mechanical technology, small and cramped. Short main gear legs etc etc. It's had its day.
Time for a blank sheet of paper and start a new design. Or: could the 787 design be shrinked down to 737 size and economics?
Short answer is "it's not that simple". The original EICAS (757/767) was certified essential (that's why the flight deck of the 757/767 had all those indicator lights - to back up EICAS if it failed). However to meet the current requirement, EICAS has to certified critical. Hence everything has to be redundant and the s/w "Level A" - that's expensive - real expensive. While they could use some of the basic architecture of an existing EICAS, it has to be customized for all the various I/O (both hardware and software) - which are quite a bit different on the 737 relative to anything else currently in production. A billion dollars would be on the low end - I'd expect it to be closer to two billion just for the development costs.
As for shrinking the 787 - that's a non-starter for the airframe, although they could use much of the avionics architecture. But any 737 replacement airframe would have to be all new (it might end up with a composite wing, but Boeing has already determined that for a smaller, shorter range aircraft the higher production costs of a composite fuselage simply don't justify it over more conventional aluminum. Given the oceans of red ink Boeing has experienced in the last several years, there simply is no cash available for a new aircraft development - that cupboard is bare and will stay that way for many years.
So, unless you like the idea of Airbus having a complete monopoly on the single aisle market for the next decade, you'd better hope Boeing get's its act together (and soon).