The Max 7 is ready for certification but lacks a waiver they are not currently going to get.

There was an article in Feb that Boeing addressed putting substantial efforts into an engineering fix with the FAA for certification that was possible by the end of the year. It discussed the possibility of starting wind tunnel testing in March. If it is going to take another 2 years as was hypothesized in a previous comment to my post for the FAA to certify it…then the Max 7 can be certified once Boeing submits a request for another waiver for the anti ice system… . Boeing withdrew the request due to their current quality control issues and to appease a threat from a Senator. After the election that Senator might not have the juice to keep the threat alive. So a new Congress in Jan plus quality control improvements by Boeing could get the Max 7 certified by the first part of next year easily in my opinion which means little. The anti ice fix is to follow as it is apparently not an exigent safety issue… . If it was all Max’s would be grounded. Over 6.5 million flight hours tells me it can wait until the end of the year or 5 years… . The Max 7 will fly! I am curious if the performance will be comparable to the 757… .

Boeing seems to think their production rate will get back to 38/month sometime in the second half of the year. Their 747 production line is being converted to a 737 production line and should be operational next year increasing the production rate provided the FAA lifts the 38 cap. Now…words are meaningless without action behind them. Can Boeing pull all this off? You can get a tremendous amount done when you turn a problem into a crisis… . Boeing is in a crisis.