FAA clears Boeing's Max 10, six years late

The FAA issued an amended type certificate for the 737 Max 10 on October 20, the last of the four Max variants to clear approval and the plane originally meant to enter service in 2020. Boeing says deliveries begin within months against a reported backlog of 1,555 orders from more than 30 customers, over 30% of its total outstanding Max book, according to aviation trade reporting. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy used the Everett announcement to argue the US certification process itself needs to move faster to compete with Europe and China, an unusual complaint from the regulator that just spent six years reviewing one aircraft. Airbus spent those six years building an order backlog for the A321neo that the Max 10 was designed to compete against. Certification removes Boeing's biggest single program risk. It does not touch the production-rate and quality-control problems that still determine whether the company can actually build these planes fast enough to matter.