Originally Posted by
RangerNS
I think the MAX could have its computer systems tweaked (possibly including new processors and wiring) with even most software, to get it to a stable place. All flying Airbus` and most/all other Boeing designs of the day deal with computers, er, tweaking pilot input to the control surfaces. In the sense that flashing an eeprom or swapping out some cards isn't hard, its not a hard fix.
I think the point is that it should be stable by itself with computers out of the loop.
Then the other issue that seems to get lost in all that discussion: the AOA probe is always going to be by far the weakest link. I would strongly argue that it is inappropriate to rely on it to ensure safety. In fact this is precisely what happened: the "solution" relying on an AOA probe turned out to be a much greater danger than the problem itself. In other words, accidents resulting from AOA malfunctioning appear to b much more probable than accidents due to the loss of stability that results from lift on the engines. While relying on two probes would improve the situation, it creates additional issues and likely is still not reliable enough.
There is a history of accidents in which malfunctioning pitot tubs were involved. Pitot tubes being the weakest link in many computr-based systems, and with no real alternative. Pitot tubes are very simple devices with no moving parts. AOA probes are inherently much more unreliable and easily subject to damage. They surely are useful as a source of information, but that's about it. I would not want my life to depend on the.