SEATTLE - While conducting newly stringent tests on the Boeing 737 MAX flight control system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in June uncovered a potential flaw that now has spurred Boeing to make a fundamental software-design change, writes Dominic Gates for the Seattle Times. Continue reading original article
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
August 2, 2019-“This is a huge deal,” Peter Lemme, a former flight-controls engineer at Boeing and avionics expert, said about the change.
Lemme told Gates that the "fail safe" update would require each of the computers operating from an independent set of sensors which would address the microprocessor issue uncovered earlier this summer and make the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which is thought to be the root cause of two deadly crashes involving the MAX line of aircraft, more reliable.
“I’m overjoyed to hear Boeing is doing this,” Lemme said to Gates. “It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”
Gates' longform piece is well worth a read to anyone in the avionics, electronics, and software industries, or who has an interest in the ongoing MAX story.
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
