Boeing advances 737 MAX's entry into service date

(Boeing)

Boeing is bringing the 737 MAX’s entry into service date forward by six months and will equip the aircraft with an all-new technology cockpit with the same displays as those in the Boeing 787, the manufacturer announced Wednesday.
                                                                        
Boeing Commercial Airplanes president-Airplane Development Scott Fancher said at the Paris Air Show that the MAX program was totally on track, with no technical issues, so the company had decided to push up first delivery by six months to the third quarter of 2017.

“Customers that are affected know this and its being integrated,” he said. “We anticipated this opportunity to push up entry into service and it was a very deliberate opportunity that we have been able to harvest.”

Southwest Airlines is the MAX-8 launch customer

“We continue to follow our knowledge points through the development process and we have an executable plan. Testing, improvement workshops and solid early data have allowed us to validate the airplane’s performance and move the schedule forward,” Fancher said.

Boeing Marketing-737 MAX Joe Ozimek said at the show that the aircraft’s flight deck would also be all new. “We are going to go to the exact same displays that are on the 787,” he said. “We are looking at the future. We think that staying with old technology in the cockpit would be the wrong thing to do and we will have plenty of room to do it.”

Ozimek also said the MAX’s “up-down” winglets, with natural laminar flow, will provide at least a 1.5% fuel burn improvement. “We are telling customers that we guarantee that you are going to get a 1.5% fuel burn improvement over our current [737NG] wing and we are saying there an opportunity to do even better.”

(Karen Walker - ATWOnline News)