It has been half a century since the first flight of the mighty McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Thomas Haynes recounts the trijet’s history and speaks to Guy Hirst, a retired British Airways training captain, about what it was like to fly
At exactly 10am on August 29, 1970, the first McDonnell Douglas DC-10 lifted off runway 12 at Long Beach airport in California in front of a crowd of more than 20,000.
Commanded by Capt. Clifford Stout, the jet flew above the state for around two hours before making a landing at Edwards Air Force Base.
The DC-10 went on to be the first widebody trijet airliner to enter service, with 386 examples built over a 20-year production run between 1968 and 1988. Although it had a rocky first decade in service with several crashes, it would be flown by more than 170 operators, including some of the biggest names in the business, such as British Airways, Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), Sabena and American Airlines.
The last passenger variant was retired from service by Biman Bangladesh Airlines on February 20, 2014. This event brought to an end the type’s 42-year career as a people-carrying machine. It lives on today in various civilian freight-carrying roles and as a military refuelling platform.
