FAA Clears Boeing 737-10 with Revised AoA Safety Systems

Boeing announced on 22 October 2026 that the 737-10, the largest member of the 737 MAX family, has received Federal Aviation Administration certification. The approval clears the type to operate in US airspace and opens the way for deliveries of a model Boeing says is the first to come off the production line with the company's latest safety changes built in.

The 737-10 joins the 737-7, 737-8, 737-8-200 and 737-9. Operators can configure it for between 185 and 230 passengers in two classes, with a maximum certified range of 3,566 miles (5,740 km). Boeing says that range is about 420 miles (676 km) greater than competitor single-aisle aircraft without auxiliary fuel tanks, and that the 737-10 will deliver the lowest per-seat operating costs of any single-aisle airplane in service.

Safety updates and cockpit changes

Boeing emphasized that the 737-10 incorporates a set of systems intended to address the angle-of-attack failures that contributed to the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2018 and 2019, events that led to a global fleet grounding from March 2019 to December 2020 and 346 lives lost. The new 737-10 architecture includes five monitoring channels for the aircraft's external AoA sensors to detect anomalies at takeoff, after takeoff and following events such as bird strike. When an error is detected, Boeing says the design prevents that fault from propagating to other systems that affect flight handling.

Alerts are routed to the primary flight displays as an AoA Fail message, with information identifying which sensor is reporting the problem, a change Boeing says removes the need for pilots to work through an extended checklist to diagnose a sensor disagreement. The cockpit also gains a physical switch to deactivate the stick shaker, the tactile warning that signals an approaching stall. Boeing notes that, in the previous accidents, erroneous AoA data also activated the stick shaker and complicated pilot response.

Boeing says the 737-10 was validated through about 1,000 flight tests, more than 2,000 flight hours and roughly 1,000 hours of ground testing. It is the first commercial airplane certified to the provisions of the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA).

Demand for the new model is substantial. Boeing reports some 1,555 737-10s remain on delivery backlog, representing about 30 percent of the family total of 7,350 orders. The company said the revised AoA sensors and associated changes will be retrofitted to in-service 737 MAX models but did not specify how many aircraft will be modified or when work will begin. All future 737 MAX production will incorporate the upgrades.

Pricing varies with configuration and contract terms; Boeing lists a 737 MAX starting price of about $100 million, with final customer prices sometimes roughly 30 percent higher depending on options and negotiation.

Boeing made the certification announcement in its statement to media on 22 October 2026 and reiterated that the company will proceed with deliveries and retrofit plans while providing no definitive schedule for the retrofit rollout.