Will Boeing have to design the 737 Max all over again?
From John Tippler, Spalding, Lincs, UK — The most read letter of the last week
Megan Greene’s interesting article on Boeing’s contribution to the dragging down of American growth (October 22) prompts a question on which some expert technical views would be welcome.
An aircraft is normally designed with a high degree of inherent stability, which derives from carefully calculated disposition of weights and shapes of the main parts. Every part is designed in relation to the others. Boeing’s decision to take most of the structure of the 737 Max from a predecessor, essentially adding bigger heavier engines to a frame that had been designed for something else, appears to have defied that normal process and upset the stability norms. The adaptive design appears to have relied for stability on a software solution to keep the aircraft within narrow margins of attitude as related to speed. That in turn seems to have created the vulnerability experienced.
What is the possibility that Boeing might end up having to redo the whole physical design, with cost consequences that are likely to be devastating without US government intervention?