How the DC 10 Beat Boeing… Then Lost Everything

Описание: The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the DC-8 for long-range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; it was introduced on August 5, 1971, by American Airlines.

The trijet has two turbofans on underwing pylons and a third one at the base of the vertical stabilizer. The twin-aisle layout has a typical seating for 270 in two classes. The initial DC-10-10 had a 3,500-nautical-mile [nmi] (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) range for transcontinental flights. The DC-10-15 had more powerful engines for hot and high airports. The DC-10-30 and –40 models (with a third main landing gear leg to support higher weights) each had intercontinental ranges of up to 5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi). The KC-10 Extender (based on the DC-10-30) is a tanker aircraft that was primarily operated by the United States Air Force.

Early operations of the DC-10 were afflicted by its poor safety record, which was partially attributable to a design flaw in the original cargo doors that caused multiple incidents, including fatalities. Most notable was the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 near Paris in 1974, the deadliest crash in aviation history up to that time. Following the crash of American Airlines Flight 191, the deadliest aviation accident in US history, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily banned all DC-10s from American airspace in June 1979. In August 1983, McDonnell Douglas announced that production would end due to a lack of orders, as it had widespread public apprehension after the 1979 crash and a poor fuel economy reputation.[2] As design flaws were rectified and fleet hours increased, the DC-10 achieved a long-term safety record comparable to those of similar-era passenger jets.

The DC-10 outsold the similar Lockheed L-1011 TriStar due to the latter's delayed introduction and high cost. Production of the DC-10 ended in 1989, with 386 delivered to airlines along with 60 KC-10 tankers.[3] It was succeeded by the lengthened, heavier McDonnell Douglas MD-11. After merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, Boeing upgraded many in-service DC-10s as the MD-10 with a glass cockpit that eliminated the need for a flight engineer. In February 2014, the DC-10 made its last commercial passenger flight. Cargo airlines continued to operate a small number as freighters. The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is a DC-10 adapted for eye surgery. A few DC-10s have been converted for aerial firefighting use. Some DC-10s are on display, while other retired aircraft are in storage.

Development
Background


The 3-4-3 (left) and 2-5-2 (right) seating configuration
Following an unsuccessful proposal for the United States Air Force's CX-HLS (Heavy Logistics System) in 1965, Douglas Aircraft began design studies based on its CX-HLS submission. The aviation author John H. Fielder notes that the company was under competitive pressure to produce a wide-body aircraft, having been somewhat slow in the previous decade to introduce its first jetliners.[4][5] In 1966, American Airlines offered a specification to manufacturers for a twin-engine wide-body aircraft smaller than the Boeing 747 yet capable of flying similar long-range routes from airports with shorter runways; this specification would be highly influential in the design of what would become the DC-10.[6][7] It would become McDonnell Douglas's first commercial airliner after the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967.[8][9]

An early DC-10 design proposal was for a four-engine double-deck wide-body jet airliner with a maximum seating capacity of 550 passengers and similar in length to a DC-8. The proposal was shelved in favor of a trijet single-deck wide-body airliner with a maximum seating capacity of 399 passengers, and similar in length to the DC-8 Super 60.[10] The choice of three engines was influenced by surveys of potential customers other than American Airlines, together with a desire to enhance hot and high climb performance after an engine failure—a serious concern at Stapleton International Airport, which was heavily used by United Airlines, one of the major anticipated buyers.[11] Large portions of the detailed design work, particularly that of the fuselage, were subcontracted to external companies, such as the American aerospace company Convair.[12] The legal relationship between McDonnell Douglas, Convair, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would later serve to complicate matters; specifically, Convair was forbidden from contacting the regulator no matter the severity of any safety concerns it had in the DC-10's design.[13]