The Rise and Fall of McDonnell Douglas

McDonnell Douglas was a leading US airplane manufacturer from 1967 until 1997.

Born of a merger from two much older manufacturers, the company was eventually purchased by Boeing.

Despite its relatively short time as an independent player, McDonnell Douglas made significant contributions to aircraft and aviation development.

But… How did the company start? And why did they ultimately merge with Boeing?

Simple Flying:

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[MrMattumbo]

MD was a cool company, but their executives should've been canned. Bringing them into Boeing ruined the company, bunch of bean counters with minimal regard for safety. We know what they did to the MD safety record and we've now seen that spill over into Boeing.

[svAA]

The DC-3. It's been in the air now in continuous service for almost 90 years.

[BobbyGeneric]

McDonnell Douglas lives on today... It is DESTROYING Boeing.

[vistalite-phzw]

I did a internship at McDonnell Douglas in the late 80s and the MD-12 was gaining ground. Also what hardly is ever mentioned is that there were also going to be 2 more variants of the MD-11. One version was going to have a longer fuselage. The other was going to experiment with a seating configuration in the belly to the wing section most likely coach/economy. The mock up of the MD95 was going to be turboprop, engine still mounted on the rear but twin propellers on each

[LotusFlyer]

Do the rise and fall of Fokker next !!

[jananney]

I believe the greatest accomplishment was the F-15 fighter. Still a world class, formidable fighter almost 50 years later.

[Spyke]

The DC-3 has always been my favorite aircraft. Still hoping to one day own one.

[ecclestonsangel]

Douglas was fine by itself. It was when it merged with McDonnell that the quality of the planes began to take a nosedive, if you'll pardon the pun. The worst thing Boeing ever did was to buy out McDonnell-Douglas, and allow their executives to remain in positions of power. Boeing was once a great company that really took pride in their work. Now it's all about cuuting corners and substandard product. The MAX was clearly a McDonnell-Douglas product, not a Boeing product. The best thing for Boeing to do is leave Chicago, go back to Seattle, dump all M-D execs and get back to basis, in other words, making real Boeing planes.

[jankowalski-etxc]

I worked at McDonnell Douglas. Management there was of very low quality. And really low class people. That poor culture was most likely transferred to Boeing. The effects of that we observed recently. The engineering mistakes they did with 737 were appalling. And they tried to cover everything up - starting with the CEO. That should tell you everything. I don't feel comfortable flying on Boeing planes - designed and manufactured after their merger with McDonnell Douglas.

[glennreed]

The giant "Fly DC Jets" neon sign is maintained as a landmark at the old Douglas factory in Long Beach, California. The building is now used by Mercedes-Benz.

[iainp]

I'm got a thing for McDD jets at the moment, perfect timing.

[wiltzu]

Finnair and Douglas were like bread and butter: DC-3 was beautiful plane which still even today flies over Helsinki in nice summer days to remind us from early days of commercial air travel. DC-8 opened route between Helsinki and New York. DC-10-30 as ER-conversion flying from Helsinki to Tokyo was at time in the early days of the eighties first Non-Stop service between Europe and Asia with flight time of 15 hours over North Pole also the longest. DC-9-15 which we called "tumppi-ysi" (cigarette stump-niner) was a marvelous plane. It was like fighter jet with engines for larger variant and when flying short domestic routes with light loads, it truly had some vertical speed. And then there was MD-11, the plane that in the end I believe had only handful of true friends in Airlines like who really understood how great plane it actually and really was when not giving too much attention to operation economics (fuel burn and maintenance of extra engine). Many pilots at Finnair considered it as the best commercial plane in the world. It was like downgrade when A340-300 came to replace it before A350-900 could arrive to fleet.

And things could have ended with completely different path: When need for long range plane came as to avoid Soviets high air tariff and requirement for stopover, Finnair actually was looking in the seventies towards to 747SP. Boeing was very keen to sell the type but not just that but complete fleet. From future plans, 757-200 was plane that really interested Finnair, but 737 didn't. 747SP was quickly forgot when guys from Douglas offered to add extra tanks to DC-10-30 to make it fly the route as needed.

[TipsyHydra]

The MD 11 And The DC10 Are My Favorite Aircraft!

[christian]

MD-11 KLM at Schiphol were like sunshine in the morning, lovely🥰

[Dave_Sisson]

Their most important aircraft would have to be the Dakota (aka DC-3).

[martinkirugi]

The DC_3 still is my favorite plane and its nostalgic to see some still flying today

[black]

Love watching all your long haul videos, they are so captivating and insightful!♥️

[magnustan]

Although the DC-3 is right up there, greatest contribution was probably the DC-8. There’s a story of how the DC-8 offered an advantage over the 707, because the DC-8 had 6-abreast seating, the Boeing only had 5. Pan Am, who was a major launch customer for both types, asked Boeing to widen the 707, otherwise they would flock to buy DC-8s. If that was the case, all the other airlines would be knocking on Douglas’ door. Boeing did widen the 707, producing the 707-320 Intercontinental and the rest is history. Boeing dominated and dominated and dominated until Airbus came along. So you could say the DC-8 made a substantial unknown contribution to the duopoly we see today.

[nuhthan]

I've watched to 1:35 and you skipped over probably one of the most crucial planes, That being the Douglas (SBD) Dauntless

[NicolaW]

Thank you very much for telling this part of aviation history! :-)