McDonnell Douglas DC-10

Biman Bangladesh Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10

The DC-10 was McDonnell Douglas's first and only wide-bodied commercial airliner. It first flew on August 29, 1970 and entered commercial service in 1971, nearly a year before the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, which it closely resembled.

Like the Tristar, the DC-10 has two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the fin. The model was a successor to the DC-8 for long-range operations, and competed in the same markets as the Airbus A300, Boeing 747 "jumbo jet", and the TriStar. Some were built for the United States Air Force as air-to-air refueling tankers, designated the KC-10 Extender.

Although many argue the DC-10's safety record was comparable to that of the 747, the DC-10 suffered a poor reputation during the 1970s. An unfortunate string of DC-10 crashes in the mid to late 1970s were highly publicized, including one in 1974, one in 1978, and three in 1979 (which resulted in the DC-10 being briefly grounded by the FAA).

The 1974 crash, when a Turkish Airlines flight crashed into a forest shortly after leaving Paris' Orly Airport killed 346 and is ranked as the fifth worst aviation disaster in history. It was caused when an improperly shut cargo door blew out, and the resulting decompression severed the control cables. It is worthy of note that this is the only one of these crashes to be attributed to a design fault with the aircraft. However, it became common for a time for travel agents to get requests not to be put on a DC-10 when booking flights.

Despite this bad period, the DC-10 proved a reliable aircraft, much loved by engineers and pilots, and the safety record improved as the fleet hours increased. In fact, the DC-10 now has a better safety record than the Boeing 747. The DC-10's safety was demonstrated in 1989, when a United Airlines DC-10 suffered an engine break-up in flight, crippling all hydraulic systems. The pilots were able to control the aircraft using the "differential throttle" technique - only possible on a tri-engined design. The DC-10 crash landed at Sioux City airport, and was completley destroyed, but over half of the passengers walked away without major injury.

The DC-10 went out of production in 1990. A total of 446 DC-10s were produced. The ageing aircraft is now finding a new lease on life as a dedicated freight aircraft - FedEx now operating a large fleet. Some DC-10s have been upgraded by Boeing to the so-called MD-10. The MD-10 has an upgraded cockpit giving it certain benefits of the more modern MD-11 cockpit.

McDonnell Douglas later produced a larger variant called the MD-11. The MD-11 used newer engines, plus a glass cockpit, which dispensed with the flight engineer. The MD-11 entered service in 1989.

External Links:

• Aircraft-Info.net - McDonnell Douglas DC-10
• Airliners.net - McDonnell Douglas DC-10 & Boeing MD-10

• Turkish Airlines Flight 981, Paris, 1974
• United Airlines Flight 232, Sioux City, Iowa, 1989

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