{"id":6357,"date":"2019-07-06T02:38:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T02:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thejetboy.com\/?p=6357"},"modified":"2019-07-06T09:39:52","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T09:39:52","slug":"the-lax-in-max","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejetboy.com\/the-lax-in-max\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lax in MAX…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>9 Minute, 48 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

When the 737-MAX was grounded in mid-march nobody would have imagined that the bird would be grounded for so long. But as MAX moves into the 4th month of its grounding shattering the previous record held by its cousin the 787 (January 17, 2013, to April 26, 2013) it is now 2nd only to Concorde in terms of the longest grounding for any modern airliner. With speculations about the future of the 737 getting out of hand and Boeing finally accepting its fault, let us take a step back and try to understand the lax in MAX.<\/p>\n

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737s at the Boeing Seattle manufacturing facility.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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History<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In order to truly understand MAX, we need to connect to its ancestors and start from the beginning. The 737 despite what Boeing might say is an ancient aircraft, derived from an even older 707 and 727. Since its 1st flight in April of 1967 Boeing has produced over 10,000 of these aircrafts, spread across 4 variants: 737, 737-Classic, 737-NextGeneration & 737-MAX and has orders for more than 4000 in its books. The variants though more efficient and larger than their predecessor, were just a mix of updates on ancient architecture and some genius level patchwork by Boeing engineers. For example, if you take a look at the images below, you can clearly see that the 737, which was originally designed for a turbojet<\/a> engine now accommodates a high bypass turbofan,<\/a>\u00a0this caused severe ground clearance issues for the engine and resulted in the iconic hamster mouth design of the engine inlet by shifting all the auxiliary components of the engine components from directly below to towards the side of the engine. A deeper look into the character sheet of the 737 also reveals that they are not just different variants but they are completely different aircraft. With the MAX producing twice as much thrust as the original 737 and carrying nearly double passengers as well, one can not help but wonder how is it the same aircraft? Unfortunately, to bring training & re-certification cost down and retain\/gain customers Boeing decided to brand them all as the same aircraft. Something which has now become a scaringly common practice, take the F-35 A\/B\/C for example 3 entirely different aircraft with a completely different role bundled up together in the name of reducing cost and we all know what came out of it but that’s a story for another day.<\/p>\n