FAA Clears Boeing 737 MAX 7 Following Nearly 10-Year Review

It’s official, Boeing has been granted an amended type certificate for the Boeing 737 MAX 7. Following almost a decade of work, the certification process finally came to a close, paving the way for the entry of the new aircraft sub-type.

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said:

“The approval reflects years of sustained work to resolve complex technical issues and complete a thorough review of the airplane’s design and supporting safety analyses. Throughout the process, the FAA performed or directly reviewed significant work involving flight controls, system safety assessments, human factors, flightcrew alerting, and other novel, complex, or safety-critical areas, while also requiring testing, design changes, and additional analysis where necessary.”

In a separate statement, Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said:

“This important certification validates the rigor of our airplane’s design and recognizes the determination and resilience of our 737 MAX development team.

“Our team of dedicated engineers and test experts worked through challenges, an extended pandemic, and the transition to new certification processes. Through it all, our team stayed focused on completing all requirements and delivering a safe and more capable airplane to our customers.” 

The MAX 7 (and MAX 10) feature updates to the flight-control software, flight crew alerting system, and a redesigned engine anti-ice system. The FAA has said it will also maintain safety inspectors on site, monitor the manufacturing process, including observing and assessing Boeing’s Safety Management System (SMS) and safety culture.

This is obviously a huge milestone for the aerospace manufacturer. While the MAX 8 and 9s were certified prior to the two MAX 8 crashes, the MAX 7 and 10 would eventually face massive delays as a result of this and the passing of the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act.

The new act requires aircraft certified after December 2022 to include improved warning, caution and advisory systems, as well as provide measures to help pilots better prioritize corrective measures and deal with system failures.

Initially this spelt doom for the MAX 7 and 10 as it would require extensive redesigning of the flight deck and associated systems and procedures, and would have to be certified under a different type rating.

To get around this, Boeing was eventually allowed to proceed without having to design a new Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS). However, they still needed to build a Synthetic enhanced Angle-of-Attack system (eAOA) to help detect when a physical AoA sensor is faulty. Boeing also had to develop a means to silence erroneous stall warnings and erroneous overspeed warnings (among other things).

Certification for the MAX 10 is also in the works as Boeing is working on finalizing its documents for review before it can be included in the amended type certificate.

Credit: Southwest Airlines

The MAX 8s and 9s will be subject to these changes as well. The FAA will no longer issue an airworthiness certificate based on previous standards for the MAX 8, 8 200, and 9 one year after the MAX 10’s certification.  

After three years, no MAX-family aircraft will be allowed to operate in the United States unless they have been produced or retrofitted with the required updates. Boeing will also be required to cover all the costs necessary to facilitate these upgrades.

So far, Southwest Airlines is the only commercial carrier with orders for the MAX 7, with 269 units in the books. There are other smaller orders, but so far, these are for business jet and VIP operators.

There are about 30 MAX 7s already built for Southwest, but they will now need to be brought up to the new spec before they can be delivered to the carrier.

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