DC-10 makes final passenger flight tomorrow

"Jagvar" (Jagvar) 12/06/2013 at 09:16 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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Tomorrow, the last McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in passenger service !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While the last planes in service were still holding up well for their age, low fuel efficiency and high operating costs are what ultimately pushed the model into retirement.

davedave1111 > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 09:32

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The end of an era, but on the whole I can't say I'm sad to see them go. They're rather charmless planes.

I definitely won't miss this:

quarterlifecrisis > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 09:35

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I'm assuming this means old school 3-man flight crew DC-10, and not newer varients..namely the MD-11?

Jagvar > davedave1111 12/06/2013 at 09:45

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Is that the inside of a DC-10? This just sparked a memory for me. I flew from New York to LA on one of these in 1999 on my way to Honolulu. Yeah, it wasn't great.

Slave2anMG > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 09:49

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I spent a lot of time in DC-10s when American ran them between DFW and Tokyo Narita. They were pretty quiet, pretty spacious in Business Class, and pilots thought them good easy fliers. Good enough for me :)

André - Volvo4Life > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 09:51

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Good Riddance.

A dangerous plane all-around, the MD11 was much safer.

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 10:00

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They would use those to shuttle us to Kuwait when we deployed to Iraq. Remember, every service the Army contracts with is usually always the lowest bidder, on my mid tour when we landed in Germany we had to chill out there for like 6 hours while they made emergency repairs, then went to land in Canada (which I assume is because so we wouldn't be over water, pretty sure the pilots were scared of an engine failure) one of the engines took over 40 minutes to start up. Good riddance to these things, every time I was on one of these things I made peace with myself because I seriously thought we would crash into the ocean from engine failure.

davedave1111 > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 10:53

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According to Wikipedia, that's the interior of the plane that's flying the last flights.

Even the old 747s were better - this is 25yo or something:

A 747-400 is significantly better:

And the 747-8 is in a different league:

As is the A380:

Grindintosecond > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 11:02

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Japan to Louisville flight on a MD-11, UPS burns around 220, 000 pounds of fuel. But its relatively cheap in parts for now and good for cargo, just inefficient for people cargo.

ttyymmnn > davedave1111 12/06/2013 at 12:36

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Oh, the joys of being the middle seat of the five-across. However, now that I have three kids, that wouldn't be such a terrible arrangement. Better than two rows, or across the aisle.

ttyymmnn > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 12:39

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Only flew on one once, and for only a short time. We took off from CVG and I heard the gear go up then promptly go back down. The captain came on the intercom to say that they had a warning light with a gear door, they were going to fly past the tower so they could have a look at it, and then they were going to return to the airport. The guy beside me asked why they couldn't do all that at our destination. We ended up switching planes, and my only DC-10 ride turned out to be my shortest ride ever.

ttyymmnn > Jagvar 12/06/2013 at 12:46

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I will never forget American Airlines flight 191 , a DC-10 that crashed at O'Hare back in 1979. Deadliest aviation crash in US history.