Quote from Alexander de Meerkat:
“For reasons I am at a loss to explain the 737 soldiers on like Grandfather's old axe with 6 new handles and 5 new heads. It was obsolete 20 years ago and yet there is talk of a 737Max which has to have raised undercarriage to fit in the engines - bizarre. Driven by a desire to avoid a new type-rating Boeing have been forced to make do with an old banger which is poshed-up to look like something new. Give me an Airbus anytime.”
(How rare to see someone with the temerity to slight the sacred cow...)
Do you mean type CERTIFICATION? My understanding (and, no doubt, yours also) is that Boeing has for so long clung to the “3” purely in order to evade the latest certification requirements for all-new types. Now that the A320 has been certificated for 25 years (this February), AI may be starting to benefit from “grand-pappy” rights in a comparable fashion, but the requirements of 1988 were streets ahead of the early-1970s (or was it late-1960s?).
Last edited by Chris Scott; 7th Jan 2013 at 10:54.