McDonnell Douglas Archives

6 min

Military Transport

McDonnell Douglas Once Proposed A DC-10 For Air Force One

Air Force One is the descriptor for any aircraft carrying the President of the United States, but to avgeeks it generally refers to the highly customized Boeing 747-200 (VC-25A) with…

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10 min

Commercial

“Props” for McDonnell Douglas: The Unducted Fan Projects That Never Took Off

Airliner technology continues to evolve year-after-year, in the pursuit of better fuel economy which leads to better financial yields for operators. There’s been a number of initiatives over the years…

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6 min

The DC-10: This Wide Body Jetliner Never Shook Its Bad Reputation

DC-10s Actually Had Good Safety Records But Were Overtaken By Newer Designs The DC-10 was the first commercial jetliner built by McDonnell Douglas after the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation…

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2 min

Hard Landing: The Demonstration MD-80 Slammed Into Runway, Lost Its Tail

Back on May 2, 1980, one of the MD-80 demonstrators was conducting a test sortie to evaluate landing distance. During one of the approaches, the pilot flew a steeper than…

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2 min

That Time a Boeing 717 Went Inverted During Testing

Yes, this is a real video! During stall testing of the 717 program (formerly the MD-95), the aircraft departed controlled flight. That’s a nice way to say that the jet…

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2 min

Military

Northrop And McDonnell Douglas Built Two Fine Tactical Jets Together

Some Say The YF-23 Was Better Than the YF-22. Who’s Right? The Northrop / McDonnell Douglas YF-23 was Northrop and McDonnell Douglas’ response to a United States Air Force (USAF)…

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2 min

This Crazy Looking Engine was Ultra Efficient But Was Never Adopted. What Happened?

The UnDucted Fan developed by General Electric should have been more than a great trivia question. (Welcome to Avgeekery Jeopardy.) “Alex, I’ll take Dismissed Aircraft Technology for one hundred.” Answer:…

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2 min

A-12 Avenger II – Son Of The Flying Wing

Week Of Unusual Planes, Continued: The A-12 Avenger II never got off the drawing board but its ancestor was definitely the Flying Wing. Avgeekery.com continues this week’s theme of “Unusual…

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3 min

What could have been: All the Boeing 717s that were never built

The 717 could have been more than just a single model. There were plans for a regional sized jet and a stretch model the length of an MD-80. Even prior…

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3 min

Failure To Launch: The Legacy of the McDonnell Douglas MD-12 Program

Was the proposed MD-12 Jumbo way ahead of its time or just a ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to keep airlines interested in an ailing company? Avgeekery explores the ‘why’ behind the…

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2 min

You Will Probably Never Fly on a MD-11 Ever Again

“You’re never, ever, ever going to fly on a MD-11 again.” Avgeeks can cue the Taylor Swift song because there’s a good chance that you’ll “never, ever, ever” going…

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0 min