Posted on 01/05/2014 8:40:37 PM PST by RckyRaCoCo
Delta is set to fly the last scheduled U.S. commercial McDonnell Douglas DC-9 flight on Monday, January 6. Appropriately tagged as Delta flight 2014, the final flight will depart Minneapolis/St. Paul for Atlanta just before sunset, marking the end to a 48 year career of flying scheduled commercial flights in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at airchive.com ...
DC-9s seemed to exhibit few flight delays for “equipment”.
Looks like an MD-80.
Those were jet fighters with seats, compared with commercial props, still in service at the time, and dinky, compared with the Eights and 707's people were still getting used to. Braniff and Eastern both still flew Lockheed Electras, and Eastern and TWA still flew, usually on reserve, a very small number of Constellations. My parents flew on the first Stretch Eight (DC-8-61) to the Paris Air Show in 1967, which seemed enormous until the wide bodies showed up, only a very few years later.
At minimum, this is probably a stretch nine. And it's difficult then to say that the Nine is going to be extinct, isn't it, when the MD-11 and the, subsequently re-designated "Boeing 717" are, more or less, almost identical airframes.
I'm a bit rusty on all this, so I welcome being corrected if I'm wrong, beyond the obvious up-grades, refits, overhauls, clean-burner cans, etc., etc.
This individual aircraft slotted for DL 2014, as reported, can't be an original "Nine." And the "Stretch Nine," the "Mad Dog Eleven" and the "Boeing 717" are over-all a "rose by any other name"
Regardless, our civilization appears to have hit a wall (no duh!). Between Lindbergh's own flight to Paris and my parent's VIP ride to the Air Show was only 40 years.
The MD-80 is a stretched, uprated DC-9. The MD-80 came from the DC-9-80 upgrade.
Yeah, North Central(eventually NWA)used them quite a bit at DTW. Also remember my brother flying into DTW on a Southern Airways DC-9(on leave/Air Force).
DC-9 is one of the safest commercial aircraft ever built.
The old North Central Airlines moved up to dc-9’s, though I can still remember their prop-jobs flying overhead(Convair 580’s?). When Northwest took over one of their aircraft acquisitions was an MD-82, not sure how many they acquired but do remember the tragic NW Flt.255 was still painted with the North Central livery(though with Northwest title).
Yeah, it was safe, but noise in the rear from the engines would drive you batty after anything but a short flight. The L 1011 was worse, and required an upgrade to first class to save your hearing.
Lowering the wheels, however, may have been a bit tricky ;)
Yeah, what was that all about? It sounded like some kind of coffee grinder ... RRRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrr ...
“The old North Central Airlines moved up to dc-9’s, though I can still remember their prop-jobs flying overhead(Convair 580’s?).”
Same here in the west but with Bonanza Airlines Fairchild
F-27’s being supplemented with dc-9’s. Bonanza merged into Air West then Hughes Air West then Republic then Northwest and now Delta.
The most recent photo in the article is a dc9-50 (has the strakes on the nose, but only one forward cargo door. Md-80 series when views from the side, have (most of the time) a flat duck bill tail cone and 2 forward cargo bay doors. DC-9 series 40 and 50 have strakes or small canards on the nose and dc-9 10,20 and 30 series do not.
Don’t forget the Aeromedical C-9 Nightingale operated by the U.S. Air Force and the C-9 Skytrain II operated by the U.S. Navy.
Spent many many hours flying in the backwards facing seats of the C-9 Nightingale.
F-27s were designed and built by FOKKER. Was there some connection or collaberation between FAIRCHILD and FOKKER? IIRC, FAIRCHILD did do some work with SAAB, but I was not aware of their involvement with the F-27.
My dad flew on one of the first Pan American 707s to Tokyo. There were more PAA staff than paying passengers on board.
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