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FedEx, UPS Call Time On MD-11 Fleets
End of an era: Air cargo giants FedEx and UPS, the two largest remaining operators of the McDonnell Douglas-developed MD-11 freighter, have both announced plans to begin retiring their fleets of aging trijets. (aviationweek.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The "Diesel 10" may have had a rocky start, but turned out to be a solid cargo bird. I flew several when I was in service, and never had a second thought the soundness of the plane. By the way, refering to AA 191, that is a good example of what happens when a wrench turner tries to cut a corner. The good ole' USAF has not had a problem with their KC-10s have they?
We are retiring the KC-10s as well. We past the 50% retired last month.
With the KC-46 (767), the jumbo KC-10 really isn't needed anymore. Except the fact that it is still combat certified while the KC-46 is only certified for training and cargo missions due to bad design of the in-flight refueling system (boomer sits up front and not at the boom and has no spatial vision or depth perception of nozzle location due to using cameras instead of eyeballs).
Stating a preference here: DC-10/MD-11 is one of the most beautiful machines ever built. The girl your friends thought was ugly but you saw differently and were better for seeing it your way. To be replaced by 767’s, a dull tube, is a sad thing imo.
Spent many an hour in one. Was sad to hear they are leaving the fleet.
Was in one of the first classes at FedEx to check out on the MD-11 back in 1990 since we were the launch customer. It was the first glass cockpit plane at FedEx, and it was quite a step going from round dials to glass cockpits. Most senior pilots didn't bid it because they wanted to see how everyone else did in training. It had like a 30% failure rate in training at first because it was such new technology. We all got through it and now it makes me feel old that a plane that was once new is now heading to the graveyard. That was somehow 33 years ago, and now I'm 70 years old in the pilot boneyard retired. Time flys and so do planes.