FAA to Start Boeing 737 MAX Test Flights
June 28 2020 - 2:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Andy Pasztor
U.S. air-safety regulators are set to begin key flight tests of
Boeing Co.'s 737 MAX as early as Monday, with the aim of returning
the planes to service around the end of the year, according to a
person familiar with the details.
The airborne checks, slated to be conducted in conjunction with
Boeing and scheduled to last three days, mark a long awaited
milestone for getting the MAX fleet back in the air. The planes
have been grounded for 15 months following two accidents that
killed 346 people and dealt the biggest blow to the plane maker's
reputation in its 103-year history.
The crashes, which occurred less than five months apart in late
2018 and early 2019, kicked off debates in Congress and throughout
the industry about Federal Aviation Administration procedures and
safeguards for approving the safety of new jetliner designs. The
deaths also prompted substantial changes in decades-old assumptions
about how typical pilots interact with complex cockpit
automation.
A Boeing spokesman said, "We continue to work diligently on
safely returning the MAX to service."
The FAA gave the green light late Friday for such flights to
start as early as Monday, according to the person familiar with the
details.
FAA officials have consistently said they wouldn't move toward
certifying test flights or other action to recertify the MAX until
all the agency's questions and concerns were answered
satisfactorily.
Before scheduling test pilots to vet various software fixes and
changes to the jet's flight-control systems, the FAA formally
signed off on a series of Boeing technical analyses and risk
assessments that had taken months. Within days of the second crash,
Boeing launched an effort to develop initial software revisions to
an automated flight-control system called MCAS, which misfired,
overpowered pilot commands and put both MAX jets into
nosedives.
Under prodding from the FAA and international regulators, Boeing
since then has revised several other features of the MAX's
flight-control computers and associated hardware, including
agreeing to relocate certain electrical wiring under the cabin to
avoid hazardous short circuits.
The test flights, once planned for the summer of 2019, continued
to be postponed as FAA and Boeing experts expanded their work to
cover an array of new safety issues and previously unexamined
computer shortcomings.
Even if the flight tests go well, the MAX faces months of
additional regulatory scrutiny-- including more testing of the
plane's handling by a group of international pilots, further
analyses by pilot-training officials, verification by outside
safety experts and extensive maintenance work--before the jetliners
are ready to fly passengers.
In addition, Canadian and European regulators are pushing for
other software changes that could be phased in over a year or more,
once the planes return to service.
Over the months leading up to Friday's decision, industry and
government officials projected that the FAA was likely to
officially lift its order grounding the planes by early fall.
Airline officials have said they anticipate needing roughly two
months after such a move to prepare aircraft for flight, phase them
into their fleets and arrange for pilots to complete extra training
in ground-based flight simulators expected to be required by the
FAA. With some potentially important exceptions, international
regulators are expected to follow the FAA's lead and clear the
planes to fly within weeks of a final U.S. announcement.
Some 800 MAX planes are grounded, with roughly half of them in
storage under Boeing's control because they were never delivered to
customers.
With thousands of jetliners of various types sitting idle around
the world because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry officials
expect most airlines to move slowly to fit 737 MAX planes into
truncated schedules.
Results of the test flights aren't likely to be released
immediately, and a formal write-up could take weeks, according to
industry and government officials. Later this summer, House and
Senate leaders are expected to engage on provisions in rival bills
intended to overhaul FAA certification of new aircraft designs.
FAA chief Steve Dickson, a former military and airline pilot,
has said that before the agency's decision, he would personally
test the revised software.
To boost passenger confidence in the redone flight controls,
U.S. airline officials previously raised the possibility of
conducting their own demonstration flights of MAX aircraft with
executives and pilot-union leaders on board. The FAA has also
considered strategies to explain the changes to regulators in other
countries to ensure a coordinated return of the fleet.
Andrew Tangel contributed to this article.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 28, 2020 02:18 ET (06:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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