McDonnell Douglas MD-12 - The Boeing 747 Killer?

[@woutergijs5246]

I recall a Swissair ride on a MD-11 my best flying experience ever. Zurich-Bangkok return Fast, enough space, thin but good Recarro seats. And the IFE was a big screen , think showing Tom & Jerry. In those days, at check inn, they asked “ smoking or non smoking?”

[@yxeanget-any]

The last sentence is the soul of your paragraph

[@Sacto1654]

I think the MD-12 was going to cause problems because its much higher pax capacity would have overwhelmed ground services at many major international airports. That was the problem the A380 faced when airports around the world had to upgrade runways, taxiways and parking gates to accommodate the plane.

[@Dan_the_Great_]

Yup. NY spent $175m for them planes to be there. The bigger they making planes them more expensive it is to run them overall

[@antr7493]

[@michaelwilliams6097]

If my father was still alive at that time, we would have the MD12. My father was asst. Director of development at McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach. His last project was the C17 globe master. He ran the dept and built the 1st plane of the DC8,DC9, MD80, DC10, MD11 and the C17. Amazingly intelligent and was designing 10 yrs in advance.

[@johngordon5295]

My Dad worked there in upper management during the 60s and 70s. Jack Davies

[@randytaylor1406]

I like your videos. When you're talking about dates in a timeline, or differences between aircraft, can you post some text in the video with the salient dates or statistics, rather than just the aircrafts in flight?

[@747forever9]

Ty dj!!

[@DragonFlameSamurai0311]

MD IS BACK!!!

[@Tpr_1808]

MD-12's success would've depended on it's safety compared to the other quads after a similar period of time

[@heidirabenau511]

Knowing MD, it would have been worse.

[@Tpr_1808]

@@heidirabenau511 That's the point 😂

[@EpicThe112]

I wonder what would the seat layout of the MD-12 looked like. will it be its own or like A380 407-615 seats depending on the airline that have it

[@michaelwilliams6097]

The original seat layout of the A380 was around 800 passengers. Airlines wanted more first class and business class. This reducing the number of passengers do to configurations

[@crixtj]

i never knew i wasnt the only one who knew about this prototype

[@jacobzimmermann59]

Boeing had a similar project around that time, but it got discarded at an even earlier stage than the MD-12. Ultimately only the A3XX/A380 made it into production. From what I've read, though, MD&D really wanted to launch the MD-12. Supposedly, the main roadblock were actually the commercial failures of the DC-10 and MD-11 programs. On one hand, they left the company cash poor and unable to fund such an ambitious project as the MD-12. On the other hand, they also tarnished MD&D's credibility and reputation. Clients and investors were getting sceptical about the manufacturer's ability to deliver on something like that; airlines weren't prepared to flock to another MD&D widebody after two mediocre ones, especially one that would unavoidably have to be developed on the cheap, and no one wanted to lend money to a project that was not expected to sell. Some of them were willing to take the chance with Airbus, but for MD&D the writing was already on the wall.

[@TonyEmond]

The MD-12 was an aircraft in search of an airline to fly it, but the airlines that would have bought it -- the ones that went for the A380 -- didn't reach prominence until the 2000s. It was just conceived too soon.

[@estraume]

There are always some designs that might have been slightly better than the 747, but development and certification costs for a new airplane would probably always be too high compared to the market demand of this size of aircrafts. The economics of developing a new plane would now work even if the design was better than the already developed 747. But seen purely from an enthusiast point of view, not thinking about the economics, what I would really have liked to see during that era would have been a Lockheed L-1011 inspired design build around power output three of the Boeing 777 engines. Would such trijet be able to compete with the 747 in the 1990s and the A380 in the 2000s?

[@heidirabenau511]

To answer your last question, no the 777, 767 and A330 were all flying and the A340 wasn't successful.

[@woutergijs5246]

History has shown that there was no more room for quad jets. But a newer trijet could have succeeded

[@heidirabenau511]

I doubt that a new trijet would have succeeded, the 777, 767 and A330 were flying and the A340 wasn't successful.

[@j3j326]

3 Engined aircraft could be useful in the Cargo and Military Fields, Aircraft engines are generally improving and tri-jets do deserve a comeback.

[@ahmadzahid266]

Speaking of interested airlines I saw a model of saudia MD-12 but not sure if this airline ordered this aircraft but I don’t think if they have enough orders to spend a billions dollars to build a few aircrafts

[@gabrielb9010]

MD Actually pitched Saudia as the MD-12's Launch Customer at one point

[@michaelosgood9876]

Looks like a scaled down A380. McDonnell Douglas & Airbus actually looked at developing a joint double decker project in early -- mid 90s until Airbus pulled the pin on that one

[@jorgesalomon9781]

Well, the aircraft looks good. However, with the lack of air travel now, it might be better to hold on a bit and wait a bit until this slump passes.

[@Pwj579]

To sum it up MCDonnell Douglas had been mildly successful with DC-10 after shaky rushed introduction into service to beat the L1011. the MD-11 was a response to the 747-400, an updated 2nd Gen widebody update of the DC-10. However MD-11 was a commercial failure, it failed to meet range and fuel burn targets . Many order were truncated or outright cancelled. Meanwhile, the MD-90 and 95, 3rd generation of narrow body could not compete with 737NG and A320. McDonnell Douglas’ business model of small tweaks to old designs had made it obsolete . The was no $$$ for the MD-12, and market proved that there’s only small market for super jumbo for niche carriers like Emirates. The MD-12 was McD’s Trojan horse to get Boeing to buy them out of business to compete only with Airbus. Unfortunately, the complacency and cheapness of the McDonnell Douglas company culture permeated into Boeing with products like 737 max and 777x. Boeing has lost its innovation. It’s sad to say but the 787 may be the last new Boeing, and it’s rollout has mirrors of the MD-11

[@sainnt]

Boeing made the correct prediction that the future was going to be for twin engine widebody aircraft for point to point operations, hence the success of the 787 program.

[@michaelwilliams6097]

Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas to get the military side of the company. They never intended to produce any jets after the orders were filled. Their intention was to shut down the competition. If MD was still in business you could see competition in twin jets and the MD12. The MD80 series was the most sought after rhrough the 80s and 90s. They shut it down so the could push the 737 program through. To this day airlines outside the US have bought and refurbished these planes. It flew better, farther, and more economically than the 737.

[@GoofyAhhYtShort]

"3rd quad engine plane is MD-12" A340: am i a joke to you?

[@mikalnaylor]

If Md had gone ahead with the MD-12, Boeing would not have been caught with its pants down: The 747-500 and 747-600 (with a 6-foot down the centerline added in the middle of the aircraft to make it wider) was ready to steal the luster of the MD-12. Neither the 5 or 600 were shown any interest by airlines.

[@christainmarks106]

Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas and then McDonnell Douglas took over BOEING

[@michaelwilliams6097]

Not true. Boeing bought out MD and shut it down for commercial aircraft. That was there intention over a lunch and a handshake. The deal was done in the two hours. The lie told by Boeing was it intended to built more MD80 series and MD11s. They started shutting the plant down almost immediately. They laid off 25,000 employees in less than 1 year.

[@delta_cosmic]

Just like the A380 and 747-8, it just came too late, even for the 1990s.

[@xraylife]

But the A380 is bang on time right now = crew shortages + limited slots have seen to that.

[@johnstuartsmith]

It is fairly easy to produce realistic-looking videos and models of aircraft, many of which come with realistic-seeming estimates on passenger and cargo capacity, speed, range, and costs. To make these aircraft concepts a reality, billions have to be invested on design, the building of production facilities and tooling, and building of certifiable prototypes. Many times, these efforts produce some decent aircraft, but unless a model of large jet sells about 500 units, the revenue from sales never reaches the break-even point where it pays back the costs of developing it. The DC-10, the MD-11, the Lockheed TriStar, and the Airbus A380 are all examples of good airplanes that lost money for the companies that made them, whereas Boeing sold enough 747s to cover all the investment costs, then enjoyed another couple of profitable decades of producing them. The market for certain sizes and types of airliner is only so large, and if there are too many competitors, none of them sell enough planes to break even on their investments.

[@vicentefuentes67]

Half of McDonnell-Douglas engineers work at Airbus.

[@davidcarter4247]

You failed to mention the four-engine A340, which Airbus developed in the belief that ETOPS would never catch on. When I visited Toulouse in 1988 Airbus was furiously railing against the whole idea of ETOPS. The A340 turned out to be a dud, initially underpowered with its CFM56s and then overpowered because there was no ideal engine for it. Its twin sister the A330 was the future. Over at Long Beach the McDonnell side of Douglas was unwilling to launch a new airliner. These were people who preferred military aircraft because the government paid the development costs, not the company. Long Beach was told only derivatives of existing airliners would get go-aheads. They were the MD11 and MD90. That was the deathknell for Douglas airliners. Boeing took over and dumped everything but the MD95 (the 717). The culture that sunk Long Beach then pervaded Boeing. In the 25 years since the merger there has been one new airliner from Boeing (787). In the 25 years before the merger there were three (757, 767, 777).

[@christopherkozal7987]

It appears like AB copied the design for a380 😄

[@user-xm9sb5zv8t]

Legendary 747 : killing me softly LoL 🤣🤣 💦

[@Greatdome99]

Douglas was hemorrhaging badly due to all the lawsuits and retrofits the poorly designed DC10 caused. Some airlines swore they'd never buy another Douglas product as well. No market; no airplane.

[@michaelosgood9876]

The DC10 proved to be a great design & a hugely popular aircraft. The only thing of poor design was that left- rear bulk cargo door latch. Possibly the downfall of MD. Problem fixed too late

[@aryaansrivastava3756]

A380 Killer!

[@stevenhanna6973]

That's were Airbus stole that

[@johniii8147]

Running out of ideas that you need to make a video on plane that was never close to existence? The better question for MD is why no twin widebody?

[@TheBoysTopSecretisOrganization]

It's more of an A380 Killer.

[@SamEpperson]

The MG 12s the wing let’s make it look like in ilish il69😂

[@brunajoiss1900]

MD 12 IS SPORTY

[@mytech6779]

Turns out MD managment its self would be the real Boeing killer. Partly a joke, Boeing was already starting down the path poor management in the late 80s, the MD merge just dumped a bunch of Jet-A on the low bin fire. The 777 was the last push of the old Boeing.

[@Pies.]

i can't take this seriously cos of the goofy plane on the thumbnail

[@VihaanChitnarine]

😏i. Find

[@margarita8442]

The Ilyushin Il-96 is the best quad jet ever made

[@heidirabenau511]

How's the IL-96-400M selling?

[@margarita8442]

@@heidirabenau511 very well darlinks

[@heidirabenau511]

​@@margarita84420 considered well?

[@charlieharrigan7189]

first