McDonnell Douglas MD-11
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MD-11
Air Namibia MD-11
Type Airliner
Manufacturer McDonnell Douglas / Boeing
Maiden flight 1990-01-10
Introduced December 1990 with Finnair
Status Active
Primary users FedEx (58)
Lufthansa Cargo (19)
UPS (17)
KLM (10)
Produced 1990-2001
Number built 200
Developed from McDonnell Douglas DC-10

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engined medium to long-range widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. It is based on the DC-10, but featuring a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined aerofoils on the wing and tailplane, new engines and increased use of composite materials.

It features an all-digital glass cockpit that decreases the crew to two from the three required on the DC-10. It also includes hydraulic fuses not previously designed on DC-10s, to prevent catastrophic loss of control in the event of a hydraulic failure.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Operators
* 3 Incidents
* 4 Specifications
* 5 References
* 6 External links
* 7 Related content

[edit] History
Finnair MD-11 decorated with Moomin characters
Finnair MD-11 decorated with Moomin characters

The MD-11 program was launched on December 30, 1986, with orders and commitments for 92 aircraft from 12 airlines and leasing companies. Assembly of the MD-11 began on March 9, 1988, with the first flight of an MD-11F (freighter version) on January 10, 1990. FAA certification was achieved by November 8, 1990.

The first MD-11 was delivered to Finnair on December 7, 1990. Finnair's revenue service with the MD-11 took place on December 20, 1990, when the aircraft carried passengers from Helsinki to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. First MD-11 service in the U.S. was inaugurated by Delta Air Lines, also in 1990. It was during this period that flaws in the MD-11's performance began to become apparent. It failed to meet its targets for range and fuel burn. American Airlines in particular was unimpressed, as was Singapore Airlines, who cancelled their order for 20 aircraft.[citation needed] Although improvements were made and the aircraft did eventually perform as designed, the damage was done.
Varig MD-11
Varig MD-11

The MD-11 was one of the first commercial designs to employ a computer-assisted pitch stability augmentation system that featured a fuel ballast tank in the tailplane, and a partly computer-driven horizontal stabilizer. Updates to the software package have achieved a situation where the plane's handling characteristics in manual flight are comparable to the DC-10, despite a much greater fuel efficiency achieved by the lessened drag of the smaller tailplane.

After McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997, the new company announced that MD-11 production would continue, as a freighter. However, in 1998 Boeing announced it would end MD-11 production after filling current orders.[1] The last MD-11 was delivered to Lufthansa Cargo on February 22, 2001. Production ended because of lack of sales, due to internal competition from comparable aircraft, such as the Boeing 777 and external competition from the Airbus A330/A340. Also, two engines are generally less expensive to operate and maintain than three. Since there was a large demand for cargo aircraft and because there was no 777 cargo version available at the time, many airlines using the MD-11 were anxious to switch to the 777 as they had no problems selling their used MD-11s to cargo operators.

McDonnell Douglas and later Boeing performed studies on the feasibility of removing the tail engine and making it a two engine plane, but nothing came of it.

McDonnell Douglas originally projected that it would sell more than 300 MD-11 aircraft, but only a total of 200 planes were built. The MD-11 was assembled at McDonnell Douglas's Douglas Products Division in Long Beach, California (later Boeing's). In August 2006 a total of 191 MD-11 aircraft remain in airline service.[2]

[edit] Operators

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines used MD-11s for intercontinental flights during the 1990s, but have since sold their fleets to FedEx. El Al flew MD-11s for a short while to and from Amsterdam, but these were rented and the airline has returned them. As of September 2006, the only airline with its long distance passenger fleet based on the MD-11 is Finnair with 7 planes serving Asian and North