I’m not sure many taxpayers want to subsidize fixing boeing’s screwup and fund the MAX RTS.

I think you’re greatly overestimating how closely tax payers monitor how their money is spent.

No kidding.

“U.S. corporations spent a record amount buying back their own shares last year, using 2017′s tax-cut windfall to reward shareholders rather than to invest or expand their businesses.

Companies in the S&P 500 spent $806 billion on stock buybacks in 2018, blowing away the previous record of nearly $590 billion set in 2007.”

Just curious, anyone remember the hardover rudder problems in the -200 and -300 and the crashes attributed to it? In the aftermath, the airplane wasn't grounded, and the fixes were training, and new servos to be installed by a specified date.

What changed? In my opinion, Trump, Facebook, Twitter, political correctness.

That is a gross mischaracterization of what happened, and factually inaccurate on so many levels.

I decent interview with an AA pilot that is working the Max issue. It's a 4 minute radio segment.

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/15/78819...boeing-737-max

Well, since you said the "C" word..."congress."....Lets put the max exclusively in DCA when it returns to service. That way we can give congress a chance to weigh in on it and see how they feel about it.

Boeing really screwed the max up bad. If they had manufactured the plane with “the fix” already in place none of this would have ever happened. Once approved to return to service, the max will prove to be a reliable and efficient aircraft that generates the airlines plenty of money (even though it’s still just an overly stretched ancient design). There will be some consumer skepticism at first, but the airlines will have a big sale on summer travel and the allure of cheap tickets will win out. Five years from now the vast majority of our NB lift will be on the max and the consumers will have long since regained confidence and forgotten all about this.

How’s that?

Even after the second Ethiopian crash, DOT Sec Elaine Chao and her staff flew a SWA MAX8 from AUS-DCA, in yet another protective overdrive mode to show the world they thought the plane is just fine. The same way her predecessor in the 90s (Frederic Pena) stood at the Valujet crash site in the Everglades and stated, “I’ve flown on Valujet, Valujet is a safe airline, as is our entire aviation system.” Literally standing on top of the crash site.

Make no mistake, the MAX grounding by the FAA was because of world wide pressure from other regulatory authorities, and how the FAA should not be the lone wolf still allowing the MAX to fly.