Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson will climb in the cockpit this week to pilot the Boeing 737 Max.
Former Delta Air Lines pilot Dickson will take the controls of a Max jet that has received updated fixes.
Ahead of the flight, Dickson and FAA deputy, Daniel Elwel will undergo training that Boeing and the FAA have proposed for all Max pilots before piloting the plane again.
The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Africa.
Boeing still expects to receive approval to return the jet to service by the fall but the required pilot training schedule means it will likely be many weeks or months after the grounding is removed before it takes to the skies commercially.
European regulators said they hope to approve the Max as safe to fly by November.
Test flights and simulator flight sessions have gone well, said Patrick Ky, Executive Director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
Written by Ray Montgomery, US editor
