Originally Posted by
iahphx
I'm a bit skeptical of this criticism. Why would Boeing want to build a bad airplane? And why have so many airlines placed so many orders for it? Every airplane has limitations, but Boeing seems to have had huge commercial success with the MAX -- at least before these crashes. My guess from prior experience is that they'll be fine with the aircraft in the future. The 787 was also briefly grounded, and look how successful that airplane is today.
Boeing has done that in order to keep a single type rating for 737s. If Boeing did the right thing - build a new plane to replace the 757/767 rather than continue to stretch the 737 in order to fill the gap, the new plane would require a different type rating (let's call it a 797 for the sake of this discussion). A new aircraft type costs airlines a bunch of money in training costs. And then the pilots would only be able to fly either the 737 or 797. Pilots wouldn't be able to go back and forth between the two aircraft types.
I've discussed with other pilots that Boeing has kept the 737 alive well past its 'best by date' for more than a few years. The model needs to be retired and Boeing needs to go with a clean sheet design. If you have a candid conversation with any airline pilot, almost all would agree that it's time to retire the 737. Well, maybe Southwest pilots think it's OK to keep the 737 going.