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The MD-11 makes its final scheduled passenger flight
Dutch carrier KLM had been the world's last airline still using the three-engine "tri-jet" for regular revenue service. (www.usatoday.com) More...
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Fed EX buys them all and turns them into freighters
And they will continue for awhile as long as the price is right and parts availability to maintain them with. $ rule at MEM, not nostalgia. Even their DC-10's they modified to 2 person crew. As the dual engine wide bodies come on, these will go away also.
FEDEX must love them. Third in the active fleet behind B-757 and A-300.
Although I love flying and plane-watching (most of the time), the DC-10s and MD-11s are among the ugliest non-Russian passenger aircraft of all time. Its mostly the tail. Lockheed got it right with the elegant L1011 design in which the engine is completely enclosed. The Douglas aircraft looks like the engineers forgot it was a 3-engine aircraft until the last minute and then just stuck it in the tail.
Never thought about it that way....but you have a point!! And ditto on the L-1011. What a fun airplane to fly on as a pax and the cabin crews loved them.
I never really thought of it as ugly but I often wondered how they got by with such a thin mount in the tail. I never could see what would keep it from flying off when spooled up.
