6 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Maybe I'm a masochist, Skewr.... 

Thank you for the heads-up though.

Quick update... On the cargo MD11 you sit right by the left entry door, you are facing a safety barrier and there are only 2 seats. All of the other cargo planes I'm around face the cockpit. I shouldn't post when I just wake up...

2 hours ago, CYXR said:

this test flight  was just another Boeing PR stunt

By all accounts I can find it was the first of several official test flights for re-certification with FAA officials and test pilots on-board and these will span over several days. Why do you think it was a stunt just because Norwegian happened to cancel their orders?

I'd be surprised if the reason for the cancellation of the orders was anything other than COVID-19 economic burdens hitting an airline that has been financially crippled for a long time and is on the verge of collapsing.

10 minutes ago, threegreen said:

Why do you think it was a stunt just because Norwegian happened to cancel their orders?

In my professional experience advising 25 of the world`s largest corporations (including a national airline) in risk management,  there are no big business coincidences. When it can be; it`s all meticulously planned.  When it needs to be as is Boeing`s case, nothing is left to chance, especially the loss of huge contracts. Boeing wasn`t required to test yesterday. It needed  to pump value into it`s stock before the start of Q3. The test mitigated it`s losses. It was real enough, there`s no disputing it, but it had more to do about Boeing`s bottom line than safety.    

5 hours ago, CYXR said:

Nah... this test flight  was just another Boeing PR stunt: discount European carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA cancelled its orders for 92 of 'em  yesterday. 

Nah one thing doesn't lead to another, they were going to test fly them and they would have sooner if they could. If they did at another time you could say it was because of something else too. Orders are being cancelled and many other things happen regardless of when they start testing again doesn't mean they are connected. Those Norwegian orders were inevitable everyone knew that, the only currency Norwegian has left is Bitcoin 

Edited June 30, 20205 yr by Matthew Kane

2 hours ago, CYXR said:

In my professional experience advising 25 of the world`s largest corporations (including a national airline) in risk management,  there are no big business coincidences. When it can be; it`s all meticulously planned.  When it needs to be as is Boeing`s case, nothing is left to chance, especially the loss of huge contracts. Boeing wasn`t required to test yesterday. It needed  to pump value into it`s stock before the start of Q3. The test mitigated it`s losses. It was real enough, there`s no disputing it, but it had more to do about Boeing`s bottom line than safety.    

Your professional take on this is definitely interesting. But what's the bad thing about this here? If they can start the re-certification flights and at the same time pursue fiscal interests I see that as a win for any business. I don't see why this has to be about compromising safety or careless execs or simply a PR response to Norwegian inevitably cancelling orders. This whole thing has always been about getting it back in the air and they surely don't have a way of getting away with anything this time around. If they actually could plan the date for this flight so as to distract from the cancelled orders I suspect this is more or less a lucky coincidence for Boeing and the flights were scheduled for this time frame anyway.

2 hours ago, threegreen said:

Your professional take on this is definitely interesting. But what's the bad thing about this here? If they can start the re-certification flights and at the same time pursue fiscal interests I see that as a win for any business. I don't see why this has to be about compromising safety or careless execs or simply a PR response to Norwegian inevitably cancelling orders. This whole thing has always been about getting it back in the air and they surely don't have a way of getting away with anything this time around. If they actually could plan the date for this flight so as to distract from the cancelled orders I suspect this is more or less a lucky coincidence for Boeing and the flights were scheduled for this time frame anyway.

I could be wrong and I hope you are correct about it not having a way of getting away with anything. I`m an optimist about many small and a few medium sized companies. But I`m old (and tired...) and I`ve personally dealt with a lot of  narcissistic execs. Sociopaths, to be honest...