FLY DC JETS! for fans of the Douglas airliners!

[sevenstrokeroll]

While writing and reading the news/rumor forum on the southwest 737 hole in the fuselage, I was pleased to see so many people singing the praise of Douglas airliners and their robust design and simple, strong systems.

I hope us FANs Of Douglas can talk here!

[stilton]

Er, yes, would that include the DC10 and MD11..

[sevenstrokeroll]

I guess I was speaking to purists...the DC10 and MD11 were more MD than DC

So, let's make it single digit douglas.

[singpilot]

Diesel-9 Trash Tens, then the -15F's.

Have lots of time in those, many fond memories. Thought we were riding high when the -32's came online, then the -50's. Those were real airplanes, all of them.

[Avionker]

MD-80's are quite possibly the worst aircraft I have had the misfortune to work on. From a maintenance point of view they are a nightmare, in my opinion anyway. And that is because of the basic design, not the systems themselves. Accessibility is dire to say the least.

[The Range]

The thing is that Douglas aircraft were made by pilots, Boeing are made by engineers, and Airbus by politicians.
I loved the DC-9.

[stilton]

I don't think there's any doubt as to the quality of the DC8 and The DC9.


It was after that that things went badly, basically after the merger with MCD.

[sevenstrokeroll]

Thank you fellow Douglas guys!

I have this lovely advertisment from the 50's, with a Douglas DC7C circling the globe and the caption that more airline flights were flown on douglas than any other make.

Things happened and Douglas and Mc became one. competition for the jumbo jets had boeing in the lead and Douglas hurried up the DC10 with some less than positive results.

I think the entire aviation industry would be better off if the US govt. hadn't authorized the merger of McD and Boeing. Douglas needed a breather and a refresh, but damn the 8 and 9 were great jets.

I too think the 9 is as close to a fighter as you can get in a transport.

Douglas was first around the world...and both the 8 and 9 were taken supersonic in testing.

[11Fan]

From whence they came.......

The lights are on, but nobody's home I'm afraid.

The West side of Lakewood Boulevard is history, save for the Flight Test Building and the West Ramp. The East side hangars where the 9's (80's, 90's and 717's) were built is now a film studio of sorts.

[sevenstrokeroll]

are the lights still on the fly DC jets sign?

[Intruder]

So, let's make it single digit douglas.

As in A-1 (Skyraider) and A-4 (Skyhawk)?

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by The Range

The thing is that Douglas aircraft were made by pilots, Boeing are made by engineers, and Airbus by politicians.

This is presumably a variant of an old expression which went ....

"The best aircraft would be designed by Lockheed, built by Boeing, and with Sales & Marketing by Douglas".

Notable which of the three skills carried its organisation through to the commercial aircraft market of today.

[Chris Scott]

Pity you feel you have to limit it to the single-digits (both fine aeroplanes). All types seem to have their moments, although the VC10 has had a remarkably clean technical record compared with its contemporaries, Addis Ababa notwithstanding; and admittedly with a small fleet.

I think it's wrong to dismiss the other big "Ten". The DC10-30, in particular, was and is a very fine aircraft. (Even though its electromechanical instruments and semi-integrated flight-director system seemed rather dated by the late 'Eighties when I flew it.)

Quote:
I too think the 9 is as close to a fighter as you can get in a transport.
Sorry, but can't resist a plug for the 1-11, which preceded the "9". (See "Roll rate".)

Quote:
I have this lovely advertisment from the 50's, with a Douglas DC7C circling the globe...
How many engine changes did it have on the way round?
The 6B, for me, was the apogee.

[Che Guevara]

Loved the DC-8, fine aircraft.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Quote:
I have this lovely advertisment from the 50's, with a Douglas DC7C circling the globe...
How many engine changes did it have on the way round?
The 6B, for me, was the apogee.

OK, Douglas aficionados, why did Douglas move on from the DC6B, engines as reliable as you could get then, to the DC7, whose engines were a step backwards in reliability.

The Wright engines were well known by this time for failure problems that were never cracked. DC6 operators would laugh at Constellation operators for their reliability record. The best demonstration is what happened just a few years later when the jets came along. DC6Bs were by and large sold on to secondary operators; DC7s went to the scrapyard, unsellable after just a few years.

[sevenstrokeroll]

Intruder...this was for airliners by douglas...start another thread for the great military birds.

Chris scott...the BAC1-11...we flew them too, but we called the 9 the rocket...we called the BAC1-11 something else.

My mention of the DC7C was a picture in an ad. I think the first Douglas I saw was the DC2 in the movie, "Curly Top". Also saw the curtiss condor, but that's not the point.

AND that's another thing. The famous song, "on the goodship lollypop" was sung in reference to the DC2. Shirley Temple was having a birthday party aboard it as it was taxied around.

Now, how many boeing songs were there?

[twochai]

Now, how many boeing songs were there?

I'm not certain about songs, but 'Boeing-Boeing' (written by a Frenchman, no less) ran for 6 years in the West End.

[11Fan]

Now, how many Boeing songs were there?

but 'Boeing-Boeing' (written by a Frenchman, no less) ran for 6 years in the West End.

And, they made a movie of it as well. Several of them actually.


Boeing (707) Boeing (707) (1965) - IMDb

[11Fan]

sevenstrokeroll,

are the lights still on the fly DC jets sign?

Actually, I'm only there during the day. I'll go by and have a look some evening.

[Slasher]

I loved the DC-9.

Yeh me too (-30srs was the fleet) although I wasn't on it for
long (227 hrs). It always struck me as a "leather jacket and
moll" machine with its 280kt slat limit among other things. I
went 727 after that (the then "collar and tie" fleet) and had
to learn how to be a gentleman.

All us Dizzy-9 guys who bidded to the 3-holer got a rollicking
from the 727 training guys because we were all a mad bunch
of petrolheads (well us FOs anyway!)

Below is one of the leather jacket fleet parked Melbourne Airport
in Oz with a "collar and tie" example taxying in the background.
In between is a F27-200 (20-ton dog whistle) which was my
previous fleet -