In Seattle, the Boeing 737 MAX could find his wings this week. A campaign of flight tests in three days is programmed with the controls, a test pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the authority which certifies civil aircraft in the United States. In the cockpit, there will also be a Boeing test pilot and an engineer crew.
The third man, sitting in the centre and slightly back of the other two, is not required when flying commercial airlines. On the other hand, it is essential during test flights and in reception where the work load is very important. The failures of systems are caused one after the other and sometimes simultaneously, in order to appreciate how does the plane... and how the drivers return to the hand.
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The interaction between the flight controls of the Boeing 737 MAX and the pilot is, in effect, at the heart of the concerns of the FAA after the accident of the aircraft of Lion Air, and Ethiopian Airlines, caused by a failure of the software anti-stall MCAS. This "add-on" to the flight controls appeared on the generation MAX's B737 without actual certification. Airline pilots during the qualifying MAX had not been formed and its existence was not even indicated on the flight manual, a veritable bible when it is necessary to deal with a failure.
on The 18th of September last, Stephen Dickson, the new officer-in-charge to regain control of the FAA, had announced that he would recertifierait the MAX that after flying the plane himself to test the new software. This former Air Force had been during the twenty-seven-year-old airline pilot at Delta Air Lines, where he graduated at the director of flight operations, head of global flight safety. The gesture is symbolic, even if Dickson did not qualify as a test pilot.
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flights those squared
The MCAS revised and corrected is therefore the object of these flight tests, which start Monday night. The weather forecast is good with a low wind, good visibility and a clear sky. These flights are ex-Boeing Field, the airfield located about ten kilometers south of Seattle, with laid-off at Moses Lake, in the interior of the State of Washington. To Boeing Field, it does not produce aircraft, but the aircraft manufacturer has telecommunications facilities and controls flight testing of all aircraft families, including some military aircraft, such as tankers. On this same Boeing Field is installed in the center of the deliveries to the airlines Boeing 737. An activity at a standstill since march, 2019.
The test flights have long been prepared for the simulator development and give rise to an order of tests developed with the engineers. This document describes moment-to-moment trajectories to be followed, speeds to be respected, failure to launch, the manoeuvres which may be at the limits of the domain volume of The test pilots therefore do not work not in the improvisation. If the operations were well prepared and repeated on the ground, it should not be a surprise in the air. At the end of each flight, the recorded data, the most important of which are transmitted in real time to the control room, are processed and analyzed before the next meeting.
The "yes but" of Europe
At the end of the verification of the behaviour of the aircraft, the FAA could authorize the delivery flight of the Boeing 737 MAX, which is not synonymous with delivery in commercial service by the airlines. Drivers need to be trained. The aircraft stored and need to be revised. This green light would only apply to the certification of the FAA.
According to the Seattle Times, the authorities of aviation safety, european (EASA) and canadian would, moreover, demanded " new and substantial changes in the system of control in flight ". "So far, the regulators have agreed that Boeing will be required to make these changes additional design [...] only after the delivery into service of the MAX ", writes the american newspaper. It is a way not to block on the ground the devices controlled by european companies and to create the future... when an Airbus need to be certified in the United States. These "arrangements between friends" will they be accepted by the passengers that may embark from here to the end of the year on the Boeing 737 MAX ?
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