the boeing 737 MAX has not been the only one

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The Boeing 737 MAX it has not been the único avión new company that has had problems shortly after starting commercial operations worldwide, we tell you.

Post written by: Capturesán Rodolfo Estrella
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

They are already más de 6 months since the Boeing 737 MAX wateró to fly around the world after the two unfortunate accidentséinmates generated by the poléMCAS software and much has been said about the serious problem of reputationón that tenderá the grandfatherón once the fly ban is lifted.

In a world so connected, to beá very fáIt is easy for a passenger not to realize that flyingá in a Boeing 737 MAX, así the change name, potentially affecting airlinesíguidelines to generate the necessary trust so that its users do not «they claim» for flying in this planeón.

Despite all the problems thatún are ahead for operators and manufacturers, It is important to review history and remember that the MAX it has not been the único avión who has had reputation problemsón for serious and unfortunate accidents. We review his predecessors:

DeHavilland Comet

Introduced in 1949 of the English construction house DeHavilland famous for prestigious fighter aircraft in the Second World War, it was the pioneer in the introductionón of Jet aircraft for commercial service with the ultra-modern and revolutionary DeHavilland Comet.

In one élittle place where flights are madeístill at low altitude and flying through bad weather towardsétaking long flights in runway-engined airplanesóNoisy and with a lot of vibrationóOn the Comet I promisedíto fly a lotás ráI ask and más high thanks to innovationón pressurized cabin.

With an embargo on innovationón and the prestige acquired suffered severe blows shortly after the aircraft entered service.ón.

• On 1953 the B.O.A.C Comet G-ALYV. disintegratedó in flight over Calcutta in India,
• 10 months laterés another B.O.A.C Comet. The G-ALYP exploded shortly after taking off in Italy.

Day B.O.A.C. Seeing fatal accidents involving two of its new Comets in such a short time, it was forced to ground its fleet, initially suspecting an explosive failure in the engines..

Miraculously the trust of the públicoún se maintainíhigh on the avión for being so revolutionary even Queen Elizabeth II of England voló in Comet to influence confidence towards the avión, but suddenly it happenedó again. The 8 of April 1954 a third South African Airways Comet disintegratedó over the mediterraneanáNew search for Stromboli in Italy, now causing all Comet operations worldwide to be halted and the type certificate of airworthiness revoked.

DeHavilland was forced to begin a long and very costly investigation.ón to determine what was happening to the aircraft, arrivedáIt was determined that the cause of the sudden explosions of the Comets in flight were caused by the continuous pressurizations at which the aircraftón was subjected in his operationón.

Given the innovative designñO, The manufacturer did not know how to assess the metal fatigue caused by continuous pressurization processes.ón and despressurizationón to which the fuselages were subjected, this about a designño clárectangular frame of windows whose corners were prone to fatigue and breakage.

DeHavilland modifiedó He saysñor your ancestorón incorporating oval windows to avoid structural fatigue, thickening of the láace fuselage minesí as other additional changes, However, the competitor Boeing, whichún did not enter the market with its new Boeing 707 I learnedó the lessons from which I sufferedó DeHavilland and incorporated into his designsñeverything you learned from the cases.

Para DeHavilland, these serious accidents, así like the ráplease introduce usón of competing aircraft with greater capacity such as the North American Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, el Sud Aviation Caravelle francés and the Tupolev TU-104 of the Unión Agreeética caused his failure with the Comet, while Boeing soldía más de 1.000 Boeing B707 and Douglas near 600 DC-8, DeHavilland perdió its dominance of the market by selling úonly 76 of the redesignsñados Comet IV.

The púwar never recoveredó trust in the company and it did not returnó to produce commercial airplanes, Finally the company was absorbed by Hawker Siddeley.

Lockheed L-188 Electra

Introduced in 1959 as Lockheed's response to the successful first turbohélice in the world Englishés Vickers Viscount, the Lockheed Electra promisedíto excellent performance, while the world was getting ready for the introductionón of the powerful and fast jets, the compañíI bet on economical tripsóshort and medium range mics with the Electra quad-motor.

Very attractive with its huge Alison D501-D13 engines installed in huge góputting them on the wings with 4 hégigantic lists, even, reducíeven the sizeñor the wings when exposed to the flow of the hélicenses not requiredía large surface area.

With a performance, ease of maintenance and backed by the giant Lockheed, the Electra enteredó in service with the main companiesñíAmerican aces by far ésuccess, even cameácases were presented in which passengers demandedístill fly in the Electra over the runway planesón for its low noise and vibration-free cabinón produced by modern turbohélists.

Lockheed teníto a good sales portfolio for his Electra until disaster struck, the 29 September 1959 an Electra by Braniff caía about Buffalo-Texas causing the death of 34 occupants.

It startsó an exhaustive investigationón, and while this was taking place, few months laterés the 17 March 1960 another Northwest Orient Airlines Electra disintegrated in the air over Cannelton-Indiana, killing 63 passengers.

After these accidents, the Federal Aviation Agencyón – FAA, limitó the operating speedón of the Electra since structural failures were suspected, however, That affected the image of the aircraft very hard.ón versus púwar whose reactionón was that of fear of flying in a potentially dangerous Electra.

The investigationón resulting demonstratedó a design flawñor structural in the mounting of the engines in the wings, this designño débil was not able to withstand aerodynamic effectsámice produced by theélicenses and that it is transmittedían to the structure causing the fatal failure of components in flight.

Desperately to restore the trust of the público, Lockheed launched its LEAP project (Lockheed Electra Achievement Program) in which at the cost of the company itself it was modifiedó to aircraft with engine mounting structures más robust así like certain components of alas.

In an attempt to restore the image and making the p believeúwar that it was an aircraftón completely redesignedñado, many friendsñíAs they began to call these planes Electra II, similar to what is proposedíto do with the Boeing 737 MAX.

Nevertheless, he isñor it was already done, The público you loseó confidence in the aircraft as a whole, let's goás in the face of the arrival of new short-range jet aircraft such as the DC-9, the Electra was relegated to minor roles in aviation.íregional lines in your countryís de origen.

Aún when the avióIt is still in service afterés de 60 añeven in rugged regions and in missions such as extinctionón of fires and afterés of having had ésuccess in its versionósea ​​patrol no.íscam and anti-submarine in the P-3 Orion, The Electra program was a financial failure for Lockheed, generating around 113 millions of dólares in demands to the company producing úonly 170 planes, many of whom served with ésuccess as for example in Brazil for during 30 años sin ningúno serious accident.

DC-10

Introduced in 1971 as competition from Boeing 747, The DC-10 offersíto the great capacity of a “wide body” with lower fuel consumption by having three engines úonly, unlike the 4 of the Boeing 747.

Initially loved by the público for its large windows and its comfort, the builder McDonnell Douglas teníto high demand expectations for its tri-jet model. And in his firstñIt was your pride and banner of Aerolílines like Continental, United y American.

Nevertheless, his story was taintedñada by a series of accidents with great péhuman losses of which the press made much echo.

On 1979 An American Airlines DC-10 was involved in the worst accident in US history to date., being so serious that the FAA suspendedó the type certificate of the aircraft grounding the entire DC-10 fleet in the país for 5 weeks and the DC-10s operating outside the país were prohibited from entering the país.

The investigationón reveló fastening problemsón of the engines in the wing pylons causing the engine to detach in the cr stageítakeoff error resulting in the death of 271 passengers sáwith dos vímoments on land.

FAA spokespersons at exhibition press conferencesían worries and fearíeven though the DC-10 will not returnía a volar. The average impactático for such a great loss of human lives was great.

The aerosolsíneas relegated the previously highly appreciated avi from their advertisingón and the avi ordersón to McDonnell Douglas fell precipitously.

Ultimately. This accident was attributed to a maintenance failure, but the image of the avión as insecure in front of púBlico no changesó. I'm hereás why 4 añBefore another Turkish Airlines DC-10 where due to a subjectóIncorrect opening of the loading door caused depressurizationón avi explosiveón with péloss of cargo and passengers in flight in additionás that the aircraft lostó vital parts of flight controls and an engine causing it to crash into the péRedida of 346 passengers.

The púwar even going más allá, recordó an event similar to Turkish in Detroit in 1972 where another American Airlines DC-10 had a similar problem with the cargo door that almost caused a serious accident, miraculously the crewóI managed to save the planeón despite the daysñcaused by door failure

The seriousness of the matter in these cases, is that the manufacturer knewó in advanceón loading door problemsún when the aircraft had not yet entered serviceía, They even had cases of door failure in ground tests.

In administrative moves the manufacturer managed to free itself from an airworthiness directive for the aircraftón that was seen as bad publicity and where the manufacturer would have been forced to repairón and reviewón of affected components across the entire global DC-10 fleet and was úonly one ticket issuedíservice number that was ignored, even by some friendsñías.

Nevertheless, the demands came to the manufacturer, at that time I sufferedó asked herás big story in which the company was accused of design errorsñor because of the hurry that the planeón enter service before competition from the Lockheed L1011 Tristar and alsoás, for criminal negligence in constructionón of a sayñor with failure, This lawsuit was finally settled with the victims at exorbitant costs, severely affecting McDonnell Douglas..

Even though the DC-10's resume was severely affected, In his time he was considered by the púwarlike like a birdón dangerous and causing a global crisis due to paralysisófleet number.

Possibly, in a long career of más de 40 añThe DC-10 could never regain its prestige, However, he operated the rest of his career until today.íace with a íSafety index similar to that of other aircraft, and even cameádeveloping new generations like the MD-11 that servedó with ésuccess by airílines from all over the world.

What's coming to Boeing

• In the three cases presented, similarities can be observed with the modern Boeing 737 MAX.
• The púwar isá very affected by the image of “insecurity” grandfather'són
• Boeing desperately tries to correct systems problems
• Aerolíneas like Ryanair, They no longer display the MAX name on their planes.
• Potential civil and criminal lawsuits by the víhonor.
• Reductionón and/or stagnation of orders.

This without taking into account globalizationón of today's mediaíbecause they didn't even experience the Comet, Electra and DC-10 in their díwhere social networks and massificationón from informationón at a global level make the púwar know más details of what isá happening causing distrust in the product, this has also been translatedén in an economic impactógreat for Boeing both in its orders and in its listed value on the stock exchange.

History repeats itself again, although times are different, ¿achieveá Boeing overcome? ¿achieveá save the program 737 in development since 1964?, again only time will tellá.