Design issues with the Boeing 737 Max 8
- 5 years ago
UNITED STATES — The crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 on March 10 have brought attention to the design and software of the Boeing 737 Max 8.
According to Asia Times, the 737 Max series is equipped with new CFM Leap-1B engines, which forced re-engineering of part of the airplane.
Fitting the new engines meant moving them forward and lengthening the front landing gear to keep the engines from scraping the ground. This changed the plane's center of gravity and also altered the airflow on the wings.
The new, heavier and larger engines resulted in Max planes having a strong tendency to pitch nose up, which is why the MCAS, or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, was introduced.
According to Asia Times, MCAS was a suboptimal fix to the pitch problem created by relocating the newer engines. It is designed to push the nose down and prevent the plane from going into a stall. MCAS was intended to deal only with a specific flight risk.
According to Asia Times, the 737 Max series is equipped with new CFM Leap-1B engines, which forced re-engineering of part of the airplane.
Fitting the new engines meant moving them forward and lengthening the front landing gear to keep the engines from scraping the ground. This changed the plane's center of gravity and also altered the airflow on the wings.
The new, heavier and larger engines resulted in Max planes having a strong tendency to pitch nose up, which is why the MCAS, or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, was introduced.
According to Asia Times, MCAS was a suboptimal fix to the pitch problem created by relocating the newer engines. It is designed to push the nose down and prevent the plane from going into a stall. MCAS was intended to deal only with a specific flight risk.