The two Boeing 737 Max accidents in less than 1 year shook the aviation world on a scale that has only two other precedents in the past decades, namely (i) the demise in the 1950s of the first jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet, due to acoustic fatigue problems unknown at the time, though it survived until recently in heavily modified form as the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft; and (ii) the intense media publicity due to the loss of life associated with structural failure of the tail of the Douglas DC-10 trijet in the 1970s, which did not prevent its continued development as the McDonnell Douglas MD-10. Besides the shorter-term effects on the airliner market due to the grounding and halt in production of the B737Max and subsequent restart of operations and deliveries, there are other consequences as concerns aircraft certification, with a particular focus on human factors and flight crew interaction with cockpit interfaces of aircraft systems. The crisis associated with the two B737Max accidents overlapped in time with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the biggest disruption in aviation history. The strong and sharp recovery of demand for flight services after the end of the COVID pandemic ensured that Boeing has a large enough order backlog to eventually recover from its technical, production, certification, and financial problems, although its competitive position may have eroded further compared with its arch-rival Airbus.
The Two Boeing 737 Max Accidents and Consequences for Aircraft Certification
Sustainable aviat.
2025-02-14
49 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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