Rockwell Collins nears finish line with cockpit displays

Rockwell Collins is planning to deliver the final software load to Boeing for 737 MAX cockpit displays in mid-September, followed by initial deliveries of the final hardware components by year-end. The handover will wrap up 4 years of design, development and test work made more challenging by Boeing’s goal of maintaining maximum commonality between the 737NG and the 737 MAX, in part to retain common type ratings between the two and minimal “differences training” for pilots. Boeing is targeting 2017 for first deliveries of the re-engined and otherwise modernised 737. “One of the things that has been a challenge for us and for Boeing is that we are taking a 2015 display system and sticking it on an airplane that was designed in 1964,” Keith Stover, MAX program chief engineer for Rockwell Collins, said. <br/>