Still Cannot Make Planes, and They Don’t Want To

Boeing is considering cancelling its 737 MAX 7 & 10 because they do not want to pay to fix them properly.

Basically, in response to the 737 MAX crashes, the a law was passed to require improvement in cockpit displays, but there was a grandfather period that ends at the end of this year.

Boeing does not want to fix this, because it costs money, and because it might require more extensive pilot retraining, so they are considering throwing in the towel on these two models:

Boeing may terminate the 737 MAX 7 program if the deadline for a cockpit warning system is not extended, blocking certification.

CEO David Calhoun previously said the 737 MAX 10 program might be certified.

In a federal filing of the 10Q quarterly report today, Boeing added that the MAX 7’s future is in doubt.

“If the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act (ACSAA) deadline is not amended [beyond Dec. 27 this year] and we otherwise fail to achieve certification, we might choose to discontinue the MAX 7 and/or MAX 10, resulting in future earnings charges and other financial impacts. We may be able to partially mitigate some of these financial impacts to the extent that customers exercise substitution rights into MAX 8 and/or MAX 9 aircraft,” Boeing wrote in its 10Q.

Certification targets

“The 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 models are currently going through Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification activities. We are following the lead of the FAA as we work through the certification process, and currently expect the 737 MAX 7 to be certified in 2022 or 2023 and enter service in 2023, and the 737 MAX 10 to begin FAA certification flight testing in 2022 or 2023 and enter service in 2023 or 2024,” Boeing wrote.

“However, Section 116 of the December 2020 ACSAA prohibits the FAA from issuing a type certificate to aircraft after December 27, 2022, unless the aircraft’s flight crew alerting system meets certain specifications. With safety as our primary focus, we continue to work to meet all current regulatory requirements to support certification and are also engaged in discussions with stakeholders concerning a possible extension to the ACSAA’s December 27, 2022, deadline.”

This is what happens when the finance types take over from engineers.

Boeing is in a McDonnell style death spiral.