Jhooper From United States of America, joined Dec 2001, 6195 posts, RR: 13 Posted (9 years 5 months 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 3174 times:
I'm sure the retirement of the MD-11 won't be quite as bittersweet as the 727 or L-1011, but is anything special planned at Delta for when the last MD-11 gets back from NRT? Will employees load up the thing and fly out to VCV?
Last year 1,944 New Yorkers saw something and said something.
Thrust From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 2673 posts, RR: 11 Reply 1, posted (9 years 5 months 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 3071 times:
The last Delta MD-11 retirement will be on the day of New Year's Eve, December 31st, 2003. After that, the MD-11s, which are used mainly on the ATL-NRT route, will be succeeded on the route by the Boeing 777-200ERs. Yahoo! It was quite a tragedy seeing N802DE's career end with an accident. The Delta MD-11s were fantastic aircraft. I will miss these giant tri-jets. BTW, Jhooper, this topic has been discussed many, many times before. I, in fact, made a post about this very topic.
AMM744 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2003, 211 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (9 years 5 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2970 times:
good riddance to bad rubbish.....
What a totally stupid meaningless comment to make about a superb aircraft which I might add is every bit as good as the flying sausage you are obsessed with C'Boy.
Rjpieces From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (9 years 5 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2918 times:
AMM744.....Every bit as good as the 777? I hope you are joking!
The MD-11 is a pretty aircraft but it was never a success...It entered the market much earlier than the A340 and 777, thus by the time the latter two planes arrived they were much more technologically superior. It had three engines which were sort of a dud since everything became "Twin or Quad." Many pilots found it sluggish and hard to maneuver as well. Also, the cost of operating a 777 is far lower than operating an MD-11.
And finally, which aircraft is replacing it?! You don't see MD-11s replacing 777s out there!
Ual747 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (9 years 5 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 2618 times:
Eh Concordeboy....
The MD-11 is a deathtrap, and not as advanced as the 777, BUT, I think it's one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built.
"Many pilots found it sluggish and hard to maneuver as well."
While I've also heard that the MD-11 maneuvers like a 20,000 gal swimming pool, I have to say that it actually has a higher combined thrust/weight ratio than most versions of the 777-200ER. The 11 is a rocket.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13344 posts, RR: 64 Reply 8, posted (9 years 5 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 2458 times:
The problem of Swissair flight 111 has been traced back to faulty and badly routed wiring of the on-board-casino system. There are some speculation that there was corruption connected to it´s installation by a crooked company without aviation relations in first place.
By now the MD-11 is a reliable aircraft, of course, pilots and mechanics have to understand it´s systems. The systems are verymuch interconnected, much more than on any A/C I´ve ever worked on. You can´t do troubleshooting by experience from other planes anymore, you have to go by the book and you have to study it.
Positive rate From Australia, joined Sep 2001, 2143 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (9 years 5 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 2317 times:
The MD-11 is a deathtrap, and not as advanced as the 777, BUT, I think it's one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built.
C'mon it aint exactly a deathtrap. Just because of Swissair 111 the plane has a bad reputation but that was just 1 accident. Is the 737 then also a deathtrap because of the rudder jamming in flight?
Ual747 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (9 years 5 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 2285 times:
The deathtrap comment was tongue in cheek. It's a safe aircraft, and I finally got to fly on one, even if it was only ATL-DFW. Such a stellar looking craft.
ORDagent From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 823 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (9 years 5 months 2 hours ago) and read 1849 times:
When I worked for AA they were rolling out the MD11. We called it the Scud. It was just like the missile. It took off when it felt like it. Landed at places where it wasn't supposed to and only really worked about half the time. As an agent we were happy it at least wasn't a DC-10 since it was even more unreliable. We all hoped for a 767 to Europe since it was by far the easiest AC to get out of the gate on time. On occasion when the ground crew was loading the cabin water system they would accidentally overfill it which ended up flooding the F class cabin!
Cessna172RG From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 745 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (9 years 5 months 1 hour ago) and read 1794 times:
You know, you could say the same thing about the DC-10 when it first came out. Remember that faulty cargo door that caused several crashes? As my memory recalls, whole fleets of the DC-10 were grounded until it was fixed. And guess what? They're still flying today...
Gigneil From United States of America, joined Nov 2002, 16215 posts, RR: 88 Reply 13, posted (9 years 5 months 1 hour ago) and read 1696 times:
The MD-11 is a deathtrap. Its unstable on approach, due to the tiny fin and the not-entirely-rock-solid stabilizing software. Swissair's IFE was just one more nail in the coffin.
It also NEVER made good on its performance promises, even the extra tanks still fell short of original specs.
It is, however, a rocket. And that's why cargo lines love them. They have a huge uplift and, after all, are Douglas planes. Built like tanks.
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