Watch How Boeing's 737 MAX Gets Wet-Runway Certified
Building a commercial aircraft is no simple task; it takes many years of designing, testing and more to bring an airliner to market. Some — wind tunnel tests, for one — you've probably heard of, but others are far more obscure. The water ingestion test featured in this crazy aviation video might fall into that latter category. It tests a very real scenario — a water-drenched runway — that could prove troublesome for our big metal birds.
The threat of water damage is all too real for airplanes — if water were to find its way into places it shouldn't be (and in quantities beyond the expected) the plane's engines could surge, stall or even flame out. This video showcases the Boeing 737 MAX going through the motions as a maintenance crew watches from the the side of the runway. As the near-takeoff-speed 737 passes through prepositioned water troughs, it sends back a torrent of water. But the plane's been designed with splash back in mind — its engines are situated beyond the splash zone.