McDonnell Douglas MD-11..End of an Era

[Garry Russell]

11th November saw a series of special flight by KLM marking the end of passenger flights of the type.

In fact that was the end of long range Douglas airliners pax flight with only the DC 9 family and the odd DC 3 making schedules flights in various pockets around the world.

Personally, I saw the very first MD-11 flight when Finnair used OH-LGA on an Helsinki flight down tho the Spanish Islands..Forget which one and flew overhead.

Many MD-11 remain in freight use...most of them in fact and Fed Ex is only about to start the slow withdrawl of the type...next year to 2025 was the last I heard. They will outlive many of us.

Anyhow, perhaps the types greatest achievement was taking the DC 10 and making it worse. Making the tailplane smaller than the Ten to try and improve the below spec fuel burn the aircraft has suffered a few turn overs on landing in gusty conditions that a smaller stabiliser didn't help. Some disagree, but my info comes from forums over the years via posts by MD-11 pilots.

Whatever, the poor economics and despite the original customers ditching them on pax flights as soon as they could, KLM has stuck with them.

I remember a trip to Amsterdam...I think it was 1992 with the first MD-11 (PH-KCA) sitting outside the hanger awaiting the second to arrrive and launch services.

I also remember when engines were not so powerful and four was still over the top on some routes but twins were too small to get the Transocean trafiic and in any case twins had to virtually hug the coast....The solution was obvious.

The Tri-Jet was the answer...help the engine out situation and gave the range and load for the mid sized large airliner. Douglas wnet for the simpler solution of actually mounting the engine on the tail and not in the rear fuseIt seemed then the the TriJet would dominate and for a while it did in many places. Then came the big powerful, reliable twin which has swept the boad, but the TriJet did their job well and helped make the market even bigger in the wake of cheaper travel brought about by the Boeing 747 and paved the way for furture types to come along on the crest of the wave.

So, the end of large TriJet scheduled pax services, a true end of an era, a date in the history books.

[alemaobaiano]

A sad day for an aircraft that seemed to be better liked by passengers than airlines.

The MD-11 was the mainstay of my early trips to Brazil, I flew a lot with VASP, Varig and KLM in the 90s and I was always happy to see an MD-11 at the gate. I even managed a few flights with TAM when they briefly operated the type a few years ago.

It was one of the few types I would deliberately choose when booking flights, especially with the small mid economy cabin configuration that these airlines used.

Everything about the MD-11 looked futuristic, and in many ways still does. I'm quite sad to see them leave passenger service, it always stood out from the crowd of big twins and had a certain ungainly style.

I, for one, will certainly miss the old girl.

TTFN

[Garry Russell]

True, pax did love them...and it seems KLM

Interesting you say futuristic. I, and many others find it very old fashion looking

Then there are many who love them. The Marmite airliner

Still, whatever the in's and out's of the type, it's place is assured in history.

[DaveB]

I always thought it looked very 'Thunderbirds' which is odd because I've always liked Thunderbirds but not the DC10/MD11. The TriStar was always the better looking of the two/three IMO.. which counts for little anyway I'm sure they were nice to fly in though.. big old comfy girls

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Yep

I preferred the TriStar

But those who like them seem largely to have been pax and I have never interacted with the type so not got the feel of her character.

[Chris558]

The TriStar was the more sophisticated of the two and hence, more expensive, which would explain why the '10 was more numerous.

I like the look of the TriStar more than modern airliners, because the wings are positioned further back on the fuselage, and the engine on the tail which looks good when viewed near head-on.