The witch hunt continues.
Let me just point out that no DC10 or MD11 was ever lost on a test/demonstration flight or by high level upsets ..... so the actual discussion seems to me like a naive diversion!
The mentioned instability inflight on MD11s only happens in cruise with fuel balance control, fuel to the aft tank. In approach configuration the aircraft has a trim characteristic as others, no more fuel aft.
The bounce recovery is mentioned as leaving ~7deg pitch and no longer attempt to land but go around, again quite similar to other aircraft.
Attempting to land with power to idle, spoilers deployed, rebounced to 20' and attitude to 6deg, by pushing onto the nose wheel sort of points to inadequate pilot technique and decision making, but not very much to aircraft design.
There is a tendency for PIO after a bounce or unstable approach, agreed, but never to the unsafe extent. MD later implemented push and pull limiters in the full configured state to mitigate this arising problem. To me this was the wrong approach, chosen because less trained pilots started flying the bird. They should have left the full authority and demand increased training/skills for the MD11 pilots.
The mushiness described in full configuration is only a consequence of lower speeds. The sops of setting Fl50 and refraining from using the equally normal Fl40 setting which gives more and better authority, was detrimental. The widespread fright by MD11 pilots about its high Va and the not very sensational braking characteristics, made them adopt the Fl50 and fly the Va to the lowest limit, some even going into Vthreshld (Va-5). All this gives a somewhat mushier experience compared to a Fl40, Va before-flare speed.
A sop and training item to me.
It is a fact that the LSAS (castrated longitudinal fly by wire, compared to the CWS of the DC10) is less agreeable to fly and should not be deactivated, as the CWS could be, for landing. This is a design flaw. MD should have left the beautiful CWS.
As for the wing box design, leave it to engineers to decide, to me it's stable enough to withhold "normal" hard landings.
Otherwise we could start building tanks that withhold crashes ....
Let me finish my remarks with branding anyone a complete moron who brings in the Swissair tragedy in conjunction with MD11 design.