Douglas Looking to the Future

Based on 1986 sales, 56% of MDC production was military aircraft. Missiles and space, accounted for 16% and ‘others’ nine per cent and while commercial aircraft logged 19% – but growing rapidly according to the folk at Long Beach. Douglas commercial aircraft deliveries have been traditionally close to 50/50 between US and international airlines but today Douglas sells about 76% of its products in the US market and only 24% internationally.

It also sells 67% of its commercial aircraft to airlines but 33% of its production goes to Government sources since a number of military transport aircraft, such as the KC-10, are produced by the civil transport aircraft division. Douglas employs about 6,000 engineers who work mainly on design and final assembly since the components for all its aircraft are fabricated elsewhere including Australia.

It is very proud of what it claims is a unique record of having had commercial aircraft in production continuously over the last 50 years. It has produced well over 16,000 transport aircraft starting with the venerable DC-2 and DC-3 – more than any other manufacturer although they admit that the boys in Seattle are gaining. Facilities at Long Beach now cover 12,000,000 square feet and are still growing.

The division’s currently most successful programme – although one that has never scored a hit in Australia – is the MD-80, a development of the venerable and highly successful DC-9.

As a measure of its success, Douglas points out that although various models of DC-9 sold 933 aircraft over its 15 year production programme, the MD-80 programme has sold over 800 aircraft since it was launched in 1980.

American Airlines recently took delivery of its one-hundredth MD-80 and the marque had scored another unusual coup in being chosen by China for assembly there.

Douglas’ rather unfairly maligned DC-10 is also far from dead. The production line was kept alive with orders from the US Air Force for KC-10 tanker/freighter aircraft. There has recently been a number of new airline orders for the DC-10 and the last one will roll off the production line next year when production switches over to the new MD-11 derivative. This was officially launched last December to fly in March, 1989 and begin deliveries to airlines in April of 1990. McDonnell Douglas claims ‘commitments’ for 117 aircraft from 17 customers.

The MD-11 comes in two versions -the standard, which is like a stretched DC-1O, and the MD-11ER, which is the same size as the DC-10 but with all the MD-11 improvements and a range of 9000 statute miles. Further out, Douglas is looking at an advanced version of the MD-11. “We can do all kinds of things in the mid-90s – new wings, new engines, twin-engined versions – it all depends on what the market wants,” said a spokesman. In narrow bodied short to medium range transports the MD-81, 82, 83, 87 and 88 programme is now looking towards 91 and 92 derivatives and an all-new aircraft powered by ‘propfan’ engines. Douglas is bullish about the results of tests so far of the GE ‘unducted fan’ propfan engine on a company MD-80. After initial tests the aircraft is being flown with a new fan configuration of ten instead of eight blades on the rear of two contra-rotating fans to reduce noise. Douglas will begin tests with a Pratt & Whitney/ Allison propfan engine later this year, thus becoming the first company to test both versions of the fan engines on one airframe.

As well as fuel economy, up to 40% better than the existing engines on the MD-80’s, the propfan engines promise better takeoff performance.

The fans can be retrofitted to existing MD-80 aircraft and Delta Airlines bought MD-80’s specifically for this reason, allowing it to make a decision at any time according to variations in fuel prices, on whether or not to change engines. Douglas is initially planning to use fan engines on a derivative model -the MD-91X, a smaller version of the MD-80 about MD-87 size. Next project would be a stretched MD-92X carrying about 155 passengers in mixed class and Douglas says it could launch an all new technology MD-94X by 1994.

The technology smorgasbord which Douglas says would be available to improve performance in this aircraft includes an ultra high bypass engines (probably a propfan) which could reduce fuel burn by 35 – 40%. Other new technology which could be utilised includes laminar and boundary layer airflow control, very high aspect ratio supercritical wings, aluminium lithium alloys and high performance composites, flight critical active stability augmentation, all electric secondary power systems, digital control systems, sidestick controllers and fly by wire.

Such Douglas products may yet prove attractive to cash-starved Australian Airlines which is delaying its purchase of new Airbus A320’s. The changing airline scene in Australia is forcing the Australian Airlines Commission and management to think of new ways of running an airline apart from being a near mirror image of Ansett and automatically ordering some of the latest technology available.

Although Boeing obviously has a head start for the Australian order with further variations on its 737s which are already in service with the airline, the highly innovative finance which McDonnell Douglas has provided on its MD-80 line may help Australian to bridge the gap if Ansett buys A320’s and it cannot. An extra few centimetres in seat width on the A320 over the Boeing 737 pays major dividends in passenger comfort and higher yield regular traveller business traffic which has traditionally favoured Ansett in any case and is much more likely to stick with Ansett if Australian’s competition consists of elbow-pinching 737’s. But Douglas say that they already offer – and have for many years – the same cabin comfort levels in terms of elbow and aisle width as the new A320 – as Douglas has only five economy seats across their narrower cabin compared to six in the wider Boeings and A320’s. Additionally, an MD-80 operator can justifiably advertise that there is 50% less chance of you being crammed into the middle seat as compared with rival sixabreast configurations.

I have only flown once in a MD-80 and happened to be in the first few rows of seats of a one class aircraft. The quietness and comfort was a revelation. The MD-80 is such a long thin aircraft that when the engines where opened up for takeoff the only sign that anything was happening was the acceleration forcing me back into the seat. The noise levels remained virtually unchanged. A bit further back in the cabin, noise levels are still low. A long thin tube is not the most desirable shape of a cabin for convenient entry and exit, but there is no doubt that inflight quality of life in the MD-80 is remarkably good.

Back in TAA days, Australian Airlines was very keen on the Douglas MD-80 line and according to some sources it pushed McDonnell Douglas into developing the MD-87, then in typical contrary style, did not buy it. Perhaps facing up to the new reality of constrained commercial circumstances may force it to look again at the Douglas product.

Douglas is also working on a new military transport plane, the C-17. It will be of similar size and weight as a DC-10 but will be able to operate into unimproved fields smaller than required by the venerable C-130 military support workhorse. Operating with a crew of only three-pilot, copilot and loadmaster is designed for rapid deployment of troops to anywhere in the world with the use of in flight refuelling. In USAF service it will supplement the C-141 and C-5 air lifters.

Winglets and blown flaps give it good flying performance but also excellent maneuverability on the ground. The programme has still to survive some political manoeuvring but all of the US armed services have clearly stated their requirement for it.

McDonnell Douglas expects a basic program of 210 units to be in service by the year 2000 at a cost of about $US20 billion as well as a number of special purpose derivatives including an airborne command post, tanker, missile carrier and special missions aircraft.

Another successful programme now running is the T-46 Goshawk advanced trainer for the US Navy derived from the British Aerospace Hawk trainer. The USN has a requirement for 300 and the USAF is also reviewing its trainer requirements.

The T-45 is part of an integrated training system supplied by McDonnell Douglas to the USN which covers academics, flight simulators and contractor logistic support for the aircraft which McDonnell Douglas and the USN believe will train pilots for about half of the current cost.

The Navy hired McDonnell Douglas to provide logistic support for its C-9 version of the civilian DC-9 and the US Air Force had a similar arrangement for the KC-10. Both of these aircraft have been among the most reliable aircraft in the forces, according to Douglas.

Of about 107,000 McDonnell Douglas employees, roughly 28,000 of these are in the Douglas division, close to 60,000 in McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Military aircraft and helicopter division, about 10,000 in other miscellaneous divisions and some 12,000 are in the information system group. The information systems group is MDC’s newest venture and it plans to build a third leg to support its other business in government aerospace and the commercial transport markets which are both highly cyclical.

There was a time when the Douglas Division was seen as a liability to the board members of St. Louis. Today though the Douglas Division is more than holding its own and with its proposed propfan airliners and the MD-11 Trijet it may well become the jewel in the crown of the vast MDC empire of the nineties.