Pages

▼

Monday, November 29, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On the 737

Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot who also happens to be a tremendously gifted writer. I've followed him on his site, Ask the Pilot, for years, and recommend him to anyone with even a passing interest in aviation. If you're the kind of person who thinks airports are the neatest places on Planet Earth, you'll enjoy his work.

This piece is from 2019 - the Before Times, apparently - so it's been around a while. But I re-read it this week and thought it would be worth sharing here as part of our ongoing #IfYouReadOneThingToday series.

Long story short, he looks at the Boeing 737 MAX saga through a specifically historical lens, and explains the market-driven forces that ended up with Boeing deciding to stretch its venerable 737 just a little further rather than come up with a new clean-sheet design.

If you've been following the MAX story, this is a must-read. Then again, we should all read it, because it casts light on the factors behind what planes get developed, and how.

By Patrick Smith
Ask the Pilot
December 16, 2019

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please note that Written Inc. has been set up so that all comments must first be moderated before they go live on the blog. I apologize for the inconvenience, but this is to ensure bots and trolls don't muck up the works. If you have any difficulty leaving a comment here as a result, please feel free to email it to carmilevy AT gmail DOT com. Thank you for your understanding.