Framing It 9.24.19
This week on Framing It we discuss people problems. The worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft is widely cited to be a software problem, but the New York Times took a look at the human factors and training involved in two separate crashes. Surprise: it wasn’t just the software, and independent data shows shortcomings in training of all pilots.
If It Ain’t Boeing, I Ain’t Going
The Boeing 737 Max was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after two accidents related to the the flight control system. The root cause of these accidents has — officially — been the MCAS system, a piece of software meant to correct for oversize engines; the engines on the Max planes are from 2011, and the 737 airframe itself is from 1967.
This week, the New York Times featured a piece questioning the official reason for the Max grounding. The pilots were to blame, or at least insufficient training of pilots is the root cause. A co-pilot for one of the crashed 737 Max flights had only 200 hours of flight experience. In the US, the FAA requires a minimum of 1500 flight hours for an Air Transport Pilots license, with 3000 hours minimum a common requirement among US-based carriers.
YouTuber FlightChops posted what is probably one of the most important videos relating to aviation and flight training:
In reality, this video is a simple survey among commercial pilots and General Aviation (GA) pilots — the guys puttering around in Cessnas, asking four simple questions:
- When asked if ‘maneuvering speed’ is a minimum or a maximum, GA pilots said it was a maximum. Commercial pilots said it was a minimum.
- When asked if pilots knew the slowest speed allowed for their aircraft, Commercial pilots said yes, GA pilots said no.
- When asked if they could recover from a stall at 1500 feet above ground, Commercial pilots said no, GA pilots said yes.
- When asked what was more important to a pilot’s skill (either a stall recovery skill set, or low speed scenario awareness), Commercial pilots said low speed awareness, GA pilots said stall recovery skill set.
The conclusion is this: GA pilots are being trained wrong. This is reflected in statistics. Every four days, a GA aircraft has a fatal loss of control incident. In the US, commercial aviation has gone years without a fatal crash. This ties back into the low-time pilots for the 737 Max crashes: were they influenced by their GA training, and given the number of 737 Max planes delivered to US-based airlines, why were there no 737 Max crashes in the US?
The issue behind the 737 Max might not be as simple as a software update. But then again, every problem is a ‘people’ problem.
Manufacturing
- San Francisco-based startup Tempo Automation is making waves by manufacturing prototype PCBs for big names like GE, NASA, and Lockheed Martin by using a proprietary combination of software, machine learning, and automation to deliver entire orders in a matter of days.
Supply Chain
- In a world where tariffs and trade wars are creating never before seen challenges in the global supply chain, John Sicard, President and CEO of Kinaxis, recommends adopting a new strategy: concurrent planning.
- After becoming the first drone delivery company to receive Air Carrier Certification from the FAA, Wing will begin delivering goods via drone for FedEx Express, Walgreens, and a small unnamed retailer this fall in Christiansburg, Virginia.
Electronics Engineering
- AI of Things! BeagleBoard has launched the BeagleBone AI. The BeagleBone features some very powerful DSP cores and an embedded vision engine (EVE) on a Sitara AM5729 processor.
- Engineers at Purdue University and Tohoku University in Japan have built the first hardware to demonstrate the concept of a probabilistic computer that could bridge the gap between classical and quantum computers by using p-bits, also known as the “poor man’s qubit.”
- Huawei, Qualcomm, and Samsung reveal integrated 5G chips. The Kirin 990 5G will be the chip in the Huawei Mate 30, launching in a few weeks.
