Reply to post: Re: The reason that the Max series need MCAS

UK joins growing list of territories to ban Boeing 737 Max flights as firm says patch incoming

Richard 12 Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: The reason that the Max series need MCAS

No, that isn't true.

The computers have "normal" mode for when Everything Is Fine, and "alternate" modes for when the proverbial excrement has impacted the air recirculation device.

In the normal modes, it does all kinds of clever stuff automatically, to the point where it can technically handle flying and landing almost entirely on its own.

As it loses sensors, it fails back to simpler and simpler rules, based on how much information it is sure of.

In the worst of the alternate modes, it simply drives the hydraulics exactly how the pilot asked, because it knows that it has no idea what's going in.

That's supposed to be the basic concept.

Boeing appear to have forgotten this.

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