In the 1960s, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 became a medium-sized widebody jet designed to fill a gap between smaller aircraft and the prolific Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Born from the 1967 merger between McDonnell and Douglas companies, the DC-10 was inspired by the Douglas DC-8 Super 60. It had a tri-jet configuration with three GE CF6-6D engines that propelled the aircraft to an operating range of about 6,500 km.
The original pure DC-10 first flew with American Airlines in August 1971 and was an instant solution for airlines to haul as many passengers as possible to as many different destinations as possible. Its one-size-fits-all approach was further fleshed out by variants like the DC-10-30 and DC-10-40 that added a longer reach and performance tiddlers. The DC-10-30, fitted with GE CF6-50C engines, had a startling range of 9,600 km and took the biggest payload of 46,180 kg.
The early years of the DC-10 were marred by accidents, some of them tragic, others threatening to turn public opinion against the plane. May 1979 saw the worst airliner accident in US history when American Airlines Flight 191, a DC-10-10, crashed just after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport, killing 273 people. Later that year on 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand’s Flight TE901, another DC-10, crashed into Mount Erebus while sightseeing over Antarctica; all 257 passengers and crew died in the accident. These catastrophes cast the DC-10 in a negative light, which eventually phased out its production in 1988.
However, resilience did come about in the succeeding models and the maintenance work, both primarily focused on trying to correct issues to revive its good name. In its lifetime, it found success in a variety of roles: passenger transport, freight delivery, and even military support. The MD-10, a converted freighter variant, introduced in 1996, supported the FedEx network until the final flight in December 2022. Another variant is the KC-10 Extender, which has been supporting US Air Force aircraft since 1981, refueling them and having been deployed in support of many operations, such as Desert Storm and Noble Eagle.
“The DC-10, dogged by tragedy as its early life was, would be widely used around the United States and beyond during its run (Japan Air Lines also employed the Series 40 model) and in a wide range of different roles to boot.”
But against all expectations, this McDonnell Douglas DC-10 turned out versatile and hardy; it would become a mainstay workhorse of the air over the next five-plus decades.