February 2015 13 From props to jets The Douglas DC-9 transformed airline travel in the U.S. by dan raley The sleek, twin-engine jet, trimmed in red, white and blue, was ready for takeoff at the Long Beach airport in California, idling on the main runway, when Rene Francillon drove up for work on Feb. 25, 1965, and had to wait. The Douglas Aircraft Co. employee couldn’t pass through the gate and reach his office near the runway until the airplane was airborne. Realizing he was about to witness history—the first flight of the Douglas DC-9—Francillon did what any serious aviation enthusiast would have considered: He climbed out of his car and watched. “It was exciting,” recalled Francillon, who worked as a cost analyst. “We all felt it was going to be a success. We all thought it would do well. It was a beautiful airplane.” Francillon watched as the new jetliner, with pilot George Jansen, co-pilot Paul Patten and flight-test engineer Duncan Walker aboard, lifted off the runway and headed out over the Pacific Ocean until it disappeared from view, eventually landing more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) away at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This month marks the 50th anniversary of that milestone at Boeing heritage company Douglas. The distinctive T-tail, narrow-body twinjet would change the way much of America, and elsewhere in the world, traveled by air. Initially designed to hold 90 passengers, the DC-9 introduced jet service—and the jetsmooth ride—to small and intermediate cities that previously relied on propellerdriven piston- and turboprop-powered planes and had shorter runways. Designed to operate from 98 percent of the nation’s primary airports, the DC-9 could fly up to 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) without refueling, but typically was used on routes of 500 miles (800 kilometers) or less. Originally conceived with four engines, the DC-9 was built with two attached to the rear fuselage rather than on its wings. That was one fewer than the three that powered Boeing’s larger 727, which had already entered commercial service. Airlines still weren’t exactly sure what to think about the hybrid Douglas jet. At the time of the Long Beach first flight, the company had orders for just 61 DC-9s. The DC-9, however, just needed time to introduce itself. Over the next 10 months, 183 jets were purchased. It beat Boeing’s competitor, the two-engine 737, to factory rollout by about two years, and would go on to become the most successful Douglas transport since the DC-3. The DC-9 eventually was built in five different versions, designated the Series 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50. The Series 50, stretched to a fuselage length of 133.6 feet (40.7 meters), could accommodate about 140 passengers, depending on cabin configuration. (The fuselage length of the first DC-9 was 104 feet 4 inches.) Another version, the DC-9-80, later was re-designated the MD-80 and launched a family of T-tail commercial airliners with the McDonnell Douglas “MD” designation— the MD-80 series, the MD-90 and the MD-95, which became the Boeing 717 after the merger with Boeing in 1997. By the end of production in Long Beach in 1982, 976 DC-9s had been built. A total of 2,441 DC-9s and MD-series jets, including the 717, were built through May 2006. In addition to its ability to access smaller airports, the DC-9 will be remembered for its comfort, according to Francillon. With three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other, passengers found they had less chance of getting stuck in a middle seat. The compact airplane filled a welcome niche. “It was Volkswagen size, but with the ride of a Cadillac,” Francillon said. The DC-9’s final commercial airline flight in the United States came in January 2014, when Delta flight 2014 traveled from Minneapolis to Atlanta. A few weeks later, the plane reached its permanent gate—going on display at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C. Delta Air Lines had been the launch customer for the DC-9. It also inherited a large fleet from Northwest Airlines when the two companies merged. As for that original DC-9, after flight testing and certification it was refurbished, repainted in gray, white and blue, and operated by Trans-Texas Airways, followed by four other American airlines, before it was used in Spain and retired back in the U.S. in 1992. n daniel.w.raley@boeing.com Photos: (From far left) An early DC-9 is shown on a compass-calibrating “rose.” The jet made its first flight in February 1965 and entered service just 10 months later. BoeinG
Frontiers February 2015 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above