Originally Posted by DenverBrian

Assuming you're referring to the 60 Minutes Australia piece, I think the insinuation is that Boeing "did it" because they thought they had no chance of competing with Airbus on aircraft orders if they didn't get this plane out to customers ASAP...which meant it absolutely HAD to be offered without a separate type certification.

It's becoming more and more, in my mind, a classic case of profits over safety. Airbus caught Boeing with their pants down - 100% on Boeing, as they made some horrible wrong decisions in the 2000s, not the least of which was halting 757 production. A" 757 MAX "would have been easy to put efficient engines on, would have had the seating capacity needed to compete with the A320/321 neo, and would have had the ground clearance and components to allow for future improvements without destabilizing the wing/engine area.

It's also becoming clear to me that Southwest's obsession with maintaining an all-737 fleet has had the unintended consequence of Boeing kowtowing too much to the cost control that such airlines have tried to stretch across 40 years.