Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

As Boeing continues paperwork exercises for the FAA on its final two versions of the four-member&nbsp;737 Max family, the programs still face significant barriers to certification as regulators sharpen their focus on several areas of documentation in keeping with&nbsp;the Aircraft Certification Safety Accountability Act of 2020. Speaking with a group of reporters recently during a pre-Paris Airshow gathering near Boeing’s 787 factories in Charleston, South Carolina, Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior v-p of development programs and customer support Mike Fleming said the 737 Max 7 “really probably explains the certification environment” since the twin crashes and subsequent grounding of the Max family derailed progress toward entry into service to an extent no one could have predicted when the company launched the family 12 years ago.
“First, we have the Aircraft Certification Safety Accountability Act, which Congress passed a couple of years ago, which led to new requirements on the Federal Aviation Administration,” he explained. “And then coming from them to us [there are] differences in the means of compliance that we have to show to the regulators to move these things forward.”
While Fleming noted that Boeing’s documentation work on the Max 7 has neared completion and that the company anticipated certification “this calendar year,” he wouldn’t reveal Boeing’s internal timeframe target for the largest member of the family, the Max 10. Although the Max 10 incorporates an enhanced angle-of-attack feature among changes associated with its larger size, Fleming insisted that engineers have instituted very few changes in either of the airplanes since the more stringent regulatory environment took hold.
“It’s really all about documentation more than anything else,” he said. "The amount of documentation that we're producing on these airplanes relative to what we've had to produce in the past is considerably larger than it has been.”
“We think we’re getting close with the Dash 7,” he noted. “We’re down to a handful of documents the FAA has not seen yet but our team is working its way through.”
Meanwhile, Boeing has flown the Max 10 for about 850 hours during some 400 flights and, according to Fleming, has done “pretty much everything we can do” until the FAA issues approval to start certification flights. He added that Boeing expects to start flying the airplane for certification credit within the year. “The airplane has been performing great,” he reported. “We couldn't be happier with the airplane itself.”
When asked whether certification of the Max 10 could get pushed beyond 2024, Fleming wouldn’t discount the possibility. "There's a chance that the certification could be pushed past anything,” he said. “As I mentioned earlier, I'm surprised how long it's taken us to get [certification for] the 737-7. I did not see it moving into this year at all. And when pressed on Boeing’s previous estimate of a 2024 approval, Fleming did concede that remains the assumption. “That is the plan that I'm working to right now,” he concluded.

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

Boeing Max 7, 10 Programs Awash in FAA Documentation Work

Strict FAA paperwork requirements continue to hamper progress in certifying the Boeing 737 Max 7 and Max 10.

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News and issues about aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), covering all segments of the aviation industry; and modifications for aircraft and engines. Subjects include product support of aircraft, engines and avionics, MRO company mergers, acquisitions, announcements and personnel, Airworthiness Directives, Supplemental Type Certificate approvals and other topics.

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

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