Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing Highlight

Douglas Aircraft, in Long Beach, California, was then the acknowledged king of the skies. Since before the war, the propeller-driven DC-3 had been the backbone of commercial airline fleets, carrying as many as thirty-two people in graceful silvery skins that reflected the age’s Art Deco aesthetic. The conditions inside were less graceful—bumpy, noisy, and, during storms, wet (the windows leaked). A cross-country flight took fifteen hours with three refueling stops. Douglas sold more than six hundred of them—trouncing