Kikapu wrote:About 6 months ago I had told a member in a PM ( no, it wasn’t Paphitis) that “the MAX has haded”.
Boeing has only one chance to get the MAX right for it to return back to the air because the whole company’s future rides on it. It will take just one more MAX crash after if and when it returned back to service, regardless of the cause, and Boeing would be finished as a brand. His is a very huge risk for Boeing to take and for the regulators. Time has come for Boeing to put the MAX to bed and build planes that the pilots can have control of the aircraft when needed and not for the pilots to have struggles with such devices like the MCAS. Now there are about 800 MAX’s on the ground. Half have flown and the other half still have a zero on the odometer. At this time, best thing Boeing can do with them after they take out the MCAS from each one of them, is to replace the present engines with the old NG engines so that they are fitted where they supposed to be and sell them off in a fire sale to budget airlines, or, design a new powerful engines for them that the MAX can fly safely.
It’s a shame really, because the MAX is the most beautiful passenger plane to look at of all other passenger planes, except for the retired Concord, of course.
Erm, Boeing's future doesn't ride on it at all.
They are too big and very good at what they do as I firmly believe they make the best aircraft in the world. better than Airbus in my opinion and in the opinion of most professional's in the industry, in particular Engineers and Pilots.
A Boeing is a pilot's plane. the best aircraft you can actually fly.
And I am not saying Airbus are any less good as they are, but there are some differences between the 2 and Boeing is a far more broad company with more income streams than Airbus.
Boeing is also rolling out their Max 10/11 and B797 in due course so they will always be very popular and eventually they will ride out the storm. They are at the forefront of innovation and they hit the jackpot when the decided not to build an A380 equivalent. A program that has proven to be a financial disaster for Airbus and operators. A380 production has now ceased and operators are trying to reduce these aircraft in their fleets or sell them off but there are not too many customers out there wanting to buy an A380.
Boeing really made a most clever decision leaving Airbus to the mega sized plane area and said straight away they did not believe the A380 is what operators want. They were proven correct.
Even if the MAX does not fly again, what will happen is that Boeing will cover losses from its partners and customers, including loss of revenue. Yes it will cost them Billions but it is nothing for a company that declares 100 billion in profit every year.
Their business is actually quite amazing. Every pilot and airline in the world is a customer of Boeing. From their wonderful mapping and navigational databases like Jeppessen Jeppview to all the FMS updates, they have a very successful business and a virtual monopoly in that field as they are the gold standard.
http://www.boeing.com/company/about-bca/Every month they make billions from all the FMS Navdata updates the world over with each AIRAC update.
Boeing has a very tight fanclub the world over. Also, Boeing aircraft hold their value more which is why they are preferred sometimes by the bean counters.
