Boeing Boosts 737 Max Safety With Spacecraft, Drone Technology

  • Planemaker wants to use ‘synthetic’ sensor to add redundancy
  • New system is sought by European regulators for grounded Max
A Boeing Co. 737 Max airplane at the company's manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington.Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg
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Boeing Co. is preparing to bolster the long-term safety of its troubled 737 Max with technology borrowed from space vehicles and urban drones that can provide data to help back up its sensors.

The system -- known as synthetic air data -- takes existing information on the aircraft, runs it through a computer program and produces readings that mimic what costly additional sensors provide.