Boeings board has stripped CE Dennis Muilenburg of his chairmanship title, in an unexpected strategy shift announced by the Friday only hours after a global aviation panel criticised development of the troubled 737 MAX. Separating the roles, which will enable Muilenburg to have "maximum focus" on steering daily operations, was the latest step the board has taken in recent weeks to improve executive oversight of its engineering ranks and industrial operations. Lead director David Calhoun, a senior managing director at Blackstone Group, will take over as non-executive chairman, Boeing said, which came late Friday afternoon without warning. It added that the board had "full confidence" in Muilenburg, who will retain the top job and remain on the board. <br/>
general
As Boeing and US regulators reviewed the 737 Max design before its 2017 certification, they calculated how long it would take pilots to react to emergencies. But that scenario wasn’t an accurate representation of how the plane behaved in 2 fatal crashes that have led to the worldwide grounding of the jet. The analysis estimated that the automated nose-down commands seen in the accidents were more than 25% less powerful than in reality. This detail of how the FAA approved the plane was contained in a highly critical report released Friday. The Joint Authorities Technical Review, a panel of international aviation experts, concluded that such missteps were part of a broader failure to consider how pilots would react to a malfunction in a critical redesign on the plane. <br/>
From disposable headphones and plastic cutlery to food scraps and toilet waste, the average airline passenger leaves behind over 3 pounds of garbage, according to one estimate. To get travelers and airlines thinking — and talking — about that rather large pile of trash, a British design firm has refashioned the economy meal tray, replacing plastic with renewable materials such as coffee grounds, banana leaves and coconut wood. Jo Rowan is the associate strategy director of the firm, PriestmanGoode, which has spent more than 2 decades applying design thinking to the air travel experience, including airport lounges and cabin seating. Now, she said, the firm is turning its attention to the less “glamorous” side of things. “On-board waste is a big issue,” she said. “Knowing that you have 4b passengers per year, it all adds up very quickly.” <br/>
Britain's govt plans to introduce new legislation to make it easier and faster to bring home stranded holidaymakers after the collapse of Thomas Cook led to the country’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation. The UK Civil Aviation Authority was forced to begin flying more than 150,000 tourists home last month after the travel company failed to secure investment to keep flying. Transport minister Grant Shapps said he wanted to change the current system to allow failed airlines to be placed in special administration, so the company’s planes and crew can keep flying meaning passengers can return home faster. The govt was unable to use Thomas Cook aeroplanes and instead had to build what was in effect a temporary airline, using spare capacity from other operators, to bring passengers back. <br/>