The biggest Baby Boeing ever built took off from Renton Municipal Airport on Friday. The 230-seat 737 MAX 10 took off on a 2.5-hour first flight Friday morning with little fanfare. Boeing normally invites hundreds of media and aviation dignitaries to such occasions and issues elaborate press releases but there was little to mark this first flight. The twin crises of the certification issues on the MAX and the pandemic prompted the low-key affair.
The new MAX includes safety refinements beyond those demanded by the FAA in the earlier models, including a third angle of attack source requested by European regulators. Even though the plane is essentially a stretched version of the earlier aircraft the certification is expected to be long and complex because of the earlier issues. The new aircraft does have taller landing gear than earlier models to prevent tail scrapes on the longer fuselage. “We’re going to take our time on this certification,” CEO Stan Deal told the single pool reporter allowed to attend the flight.
The MAX 10 is Boeing’s answer to the A321neo, but critics say it has some shortcomings in that regard. The biggest single-aisle Airbus has 10 more seats and a range of 4,000 nautical miles, compared to the Boeing’s 3,300 NM. The range gives A321neo true trans-Atlantic and transcontinental flight capability that some operators are exploiting for medium-haul budget flights between Europe and North America, Africa and Asia without using widebodies.
