737 MAX in the Lame Duck Congress
Wall Street Journal reporting on development of legislative initiatives to deal with the imminent end-date for the certification process for the MAX 7 and MAX 10, particularly with regard to updated crew alerting systems (as compared to systems and configurations in currently certified MAX variants). The date, it should be noted, isn't any sort of magical - it was included in wide-ranging legislation originated out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that addresses several areas in the wake and/or aftermath of the two 737 MAX accidents.
WSJ reporting indicates the scorecard for the inside baseball going on - United, Delta and Southwest want the MAX 7 & 10 variants with orders reaching approx. 50 billion USD; Southwest's pilots union and ALPA support extension of the date, along with former NTSB head Robert Zumwalt. Opposed are the pilots union at American, and a group of family members of the accident victims. House Transportation & Infrastructure Chair, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D.-Ore.) also opposes extension. (The estimable Mr. DeFazio retires from the Congress at the end of this session.)
State of play in Congress reportedly is that Sen. Maria Cantwell (D.-Wash.) is driving legislative measures to extend the date, with a requirement for "additional safety improvements" not otherwise identified in the reporting. The measure "would require newly produced 737 MAX jets and the existing fleet to be retrofitted with safety features currently slated for the 737 MAX 10." (Though stated in plain enough English, this SLF/attorney doesn't quite understand what is being proposed here.)
Perhaps, if the date is extended, then as an earlier poster suggested, the result might be two sub-variants of the MAX 7 and MAX 10 - a "commonality" sub-variant, and a "new alerting" sub-variant. And what is within "additional safety improvements"?
In other Boeing news, WSJ also reporting that United is close to a deal for dozens of 787 Dreamliner aircraft, as segments of its wide-body aircraft fleet continue to age out. Some things do get better with age, but not everything.
Last edited by WillowRun 6-3; 3rd Dec 2022 at 14:48.