9 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: /u/im-ba explains how badly written software caused the Boeing MAX crashes
Can somebody explain to me what this has to do with the MAXs way of handling takeoffs because they are lower to the ground?
I originally heard that the controls were programmed in such a way that didn’t require retraining pilots because some of the controls were developed to handle just like the former versions of the 737 but had a different angle for take off.
I hope I’m making sense here in my question
Comment by blablahblah at 16/05/2024 at 02:10 UTC
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
To make the 737 Max more efficient, Boeing stuck bigger engines on the plane. In order to fit the bigger engines under the wings, they had to move them a bit from where they were on the old 737s (since the engine is a cone, moving it forward gave them some extra room - see the picture here[1])
1: https://www.allaboutlean.com/boeing-management/boeing-737-400-and-max8-engine-comparison/
Normally this would be fine, it would just fly a little differently - think of it like moving the pivot point of a see-saw- and the pilot could compensate by pulling the stick harder- but in order to get away with not retraining the pilots, it had to fly *exactly* like the old planes.
So rather than just doing move stick = move control surface the corresponding amount, they had the computer calculate where the plane would be pointing if it were an old plane and the pilot put the stick in that spot. Then the computer adjusts the control surfaces to put the plane in the same spot the old plane would have been, which is slightly different than what the new plane would have naturally done with the same adjustments.