DC-10 : All you need to know about the McDonnell Douglas jet

In previous decades, air travel was quite exclusive. Two round-trip tickets for travel across the United States cost as much as a new vehicle at the beginning of the commercial aviation boom in the late 1920s. According to the  Federal Aviation Administration about 2.9 million people take flights every day in the United States alone.

The frequency of air travel has increased, whether for business or pleasure, as more people have access to air travel. The main force behind this transition is the growth of jet aircraft. The Douglas DC-8, one of the earliest jet aircraft, paved the way for the later and very influential McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

The DC-10 has an intriguing history spanning more than 50 years, including battles against veritable behemoths, catastrophic crashes and aircraft restorations. This is a direct reference to the history of this popular aircraft.

Read more: The 10 Most Iconic Airplanes In Aviation History, Ranked

The Concept Of The McDonnell Douglas DC-10

Introduced in early 1969, the Boeing 747, an iconic jumbo aircraft, was a major factor in enabling jet travel for people of that age. But just as the largest cruise ships can’t fit in every port, the massive structure of the 747 can’t fit on every airport runway. The need at that time was for mid-size aircraft that could accommodate a large number of people without being as large as a jumbo.

Efforts by airlines in the 1960s and 1970s to figure out how to get as many passengers as possible to as many different destinations as possible led to McDonnell Douglas’ DC-10. When the McDonnell and Douglas businesses merged in 1967, they set out to design an airplane that could do exactly that. The proposed aircraft will be widebody and Douglas DC-8 Super 60 (about 187 feet and 5 inches) in length.

In contrast, the normal DC-8 was a single-aisle aircraft. In August 1971, American Airlines introduced the DC-10. Although it borrowed internal ideas from earlier DC-8 versions, it was undoubtedly a unique aircraft that met the airline’s demand for a medium-sized jet.

What The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Could Do

With an output of 177.92 kN, the three GE CF6-6D engines that powered the first tri-jet DC-10 variant allowed them to reach an operational range of about 6,500 km. In the aviation industry, following a one-size-fits-all strategy can be challenging. Especially when the goal is to expand your potential market share and customer base by reaching out to new areas and niches.

Subsequently, McDonnell Douglas released long-range versions of the DC-10. The DC-10-30 and DC-10-40 variants, both of which had significant increases in range and some performance adjustments, followed the DC-10-10 model. With an astonishing 9,600 km range, the 30 can carry a heaviest payload of 46,180 kg and remains similar to the rest of the family in weight and size.

The DC-10-30 type was powered by upgraded GE CF6-50C engines, while the final 10-40 type was powered by Pratt & Whitney’s JT9D-59A model, which was also used to power the Boeing 747. 544 mph, the DC-10 was designed for cross-country travel as well as international travel, as planned.However, some tragic accidents in the early period of its life would have a profound effect, much like the tragedy that would also doom the Concorde.

A Reputation Tarnished By Tragedy

The deadliest plane disaster in US history was on American Airlines Flight 191, which tragically happened in May of 1979. After earlier repairs to the plane’s engines, the problems were not addressed and when the plane took off from O’Hare International Airport, one of the engines came off the plane. This caused the accident. When the plane failed to regain control and crashed 31 seconds after takeoff, 273 people lost their lives. Unfortunately, Flight 191 was not the only DC-10-10 lost in this type of accident.

During an aerial tour of Antarctica in November of the same year, another DC-10 operated by Air New Zealand, Flight TE901, crashed into Mount Erebus. 257 people died in the disaster, which was allegedly caused by challenging conditions and the uncertainty of the flight path given by the instruments. Early in the DC-10’s existence, these accidents made things look so bad that the vehicle had to end production in 1988.

Although these terrible incidents would have damaged the DC-10 family’s reputation in the industry, repairs and the introduction of new models were intended to address problems such as malfunctioning electric actuators in the cargo doors. Still, a different perspective on the DC-10

The Lifespan Of The McDonnell Douglas DC-10

Relatively slim and long-range, the DC-10 was a popular choice for uses beyond passenger transport. In 1996, the family’s spectrum of variants expanded further with the release of the MD-10. The Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) effort began modifying the DC-10-10s and DC-10-30s that year to develop a more sophisticated freighter aircraft that used an advanced common flightdeck and other technologies.

FedEx’s network will receive cargo from MD-10s until December 2022, when the model’s last flight in that role is scheduled. Until then, the DC-10 had not carried passengers on a scheduled flight in five years (that flight was in December 2017 with Bangladesh Viman Airlines).

READ | 5 Interesting Facts About the Douglas DC-8 in Vintage Quadjet

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