#McDonnell Douglas MD-2001

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the McDonnell Douglas MD-2001 "Orient Express" Hypersonic Transport, their submission to the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program.

Artwork by Horonzak.

Date: October 15, 1987

NASA ID: ARC-1987-AC87-0754

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 20131: HL7371, McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, Korean Air, Anchorage, April 2, 2001.

Korean Air took delivery of five MD-11 configured as passenger aircraft in 1991/92. After only a few years of service in that role, the carrier converted them successively into freighters from 1995 onwards, including HL7371 that underwent said procedure in December 1999.

[aviaposter]

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 VASP

Registration: PP-SOW Type: MD-11 P Engines: 3 × GE CF6-80C2D1F Serial Number: 48413 First flight: Jan, 1992

The famous Brazilian airline VASP was founded on November 4, 1933 by the government of the state of Sao Paulo and began its operations a week later. It was the only company in Brazil that did not use seaplanes. Unlike other Brazilian airlines, it has focused on serving routes inland to airfields far from water surfaces. In most cases, VASP aircraft landed in pastures that were specially leveled for their landing.

Over the years, VASP has expanded its flight geography by acquiring other airlines. Since 1990, VASP began offering international flights, which until then was the monopoly of another Brazilian airline, Varig. The company needed bigger planes for long-distance flights. VASP has operated various types of aircraft, from the British General Aircraft Monospar ST-4 to the Boeing 737-200 and the largest of all, the MD-11.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a wide-body airliner that evolved from the DC-10. The aircraft made its first flight in 1990, and a couple of years later joined the VASP airline. There were ten MD-11s in total in the company's fleet, and all of them performed flights on long-haul international routes. These planes could be found on the platforms of many airports around the world.

Despite the ambitious plans made by the VASP management, a period of ineffective management led to the fact that the airline was left with significant debts and a bad credit history, which forced it to abandon international expansion. Therefore, in 2001, MD-11 aircraft were withdrawn from its fleet.

As the fourth largest Brazilian airline with a fleet of obsolete Boeing 737-200, VASP is facing a major crisis amid growing competition from airlines with a more modern fleet. In 2005, it stopped all flights, and in 2008, having not found a way out of the crisis situation, the company was finally closed after 75 years of existence.

Poster for Aviators aviaposter.com

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.1 (after 1950)

1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery. 1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city's bus boycott. 1958 – The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union. 1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns. 1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent. 1960 – Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu Sese Seko's men on the banks of the Sankuru River, for inciting the army to rebellion. 1963 – Nagaland, became the 16th state of India. 1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam. 1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II. 1971 – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray. 1971 – Purge of Croatian Spring leaders starts in Yugoslavia at the meeting of the League of Communists at the Karađorđevo estate. 1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia. 1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board. 1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport. 1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board. 1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes. 1988 – World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states. 1988 – Benazir Bhutto, is named as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first female leader to lead a Muslim nation. 1989 – Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état. 1989 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state. 1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed. 1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union. 1997 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacks the CPI (ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people. 1997 – Fourteen year-old Michael Carneal opens fire at a group of students in Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three and injuring five. 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is inaugurated as the president of Mexico, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive federal power to an opposing political party following a free and democratic election in Mexico's history. 2001 – The United Russia political party was founded. 2005 – As a result of the merger of the Perm Oblast and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, a new subject of the Russian Federation, the Perm Krai, was created. 2006 – The law on same-sex marriage comes into force in South Africa, legalizing same-sex marriage for the first time on the African continent. 2009 – The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in the European Union. 2011 – The Alma-Ata Metro was opened. 2018 – The Oulu Police informed the public about the first offence of the much larger child sexual exploitation in Oulu, Finland. 2019 – The outbreak of coronavirus infection began in Wuhan.

[sentinelchicken]

Big ups to the @DFWAirport social media team for hosting us avgeeks on the day of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 retirement from passenger services at American Airlines today! ⁣ ⁣ This was one of the “boneyard” flights departing for Roswell, New Mexico, where the MD-80 fleet is headed now that the Mad Dog has been retired from passenger services at American. This particular MD-80 was obviously lightly loaded and made a spirited departure off 18L with the crowds surrounding the airport beacon at the spotters’ park, Founders Plaza, in the distance. ⁣ ⁣ This particular MD-83 is N979TW, delivered originally to Trans World Airlines on 10 November 1999 and crossed over to American after the 2001 acquisition of TWA. Trans World operated a total of 104 MD-82/83s in its history prior to the merger. N979TW was one of the last seven MD-80s delivered to TWA in the fall of 1999 and was only five away on the production line from the very last MD-80 built, N984TW, which is the one that flew the last passenger services today. ⁣ ⁣ N979TW’s line number was 2282 and N984TW’s line number is 2287. ⁣ ⁣⁣ #Avgeek #aviation #aircraft #planeporn #KDFW #DFW #dfwavgeek #airport #planespotting #airlines #McDonnellDougas #MD80 #American #AmericanAirlines #N979TW #instagramaviation #splendid_transport #instaaviation #aviationlovers #aviationphotography #flight #AvGeeksAero #AvgeekSchoolofKnowledge #AvGeekNation #TeamAvGeek #MD80Sunset (at DFW Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ABYiFBMhN/?igshid=1khcctl50hah5

[airmanisr]

McDonnell Douglas MD-81 [N813ME] by Alan Wilson Via Flickr: c/n 48007, l/n 971 Built 1981 for Swissair as HB-INH. Leased to SAS in 1995 OY-KIH. Joined Midwest Express (later Midwest Airlines) in 2001 as N813ME. By 2009 it was stored at Blytheville AR and since 2011 it has been in use as a residence at the Sport Flyers Airport, Brookshire, Texas, United States. 22nd March 2017

[thedeadshotnetwork]

How the Boeing jet no one wanted became the plane airlines scour the planet for (BA, DAL) Flickr/Tomás Del Coro The Boeing 717-200 went out of production in 2006. Only 156 of the planes have been built. A decade later, the airlines that operate the 717 want more of them. On May 23, 2006, Boeing delivered the last two 717-200 jetliners to customers at its Long Beach, California factory. It marked to the end of a program filled with promise but that had ultimately failed to capture the interest of airlines. Even Boeing's well-oiled sales operation could only manage to muster up 156 orders for the little 100-seat, short-haul-airliner. Currently, the 717 is operated primarily by four airlines; Delta , Hawaiian , Qantas , and Spanish low-cost carrier Volotea. With 91 of the planes in its fleet, Delta is the by far the type's largest operator. Incredibly, a decade after being axed from Boeing's lineup, airlines are scouring the planet looking for available Boeing 717s. "These guys keep begging me to give them more 717s," Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president of sales for the Asia Pacific and India , told Business Insider. "But that era over and it's not going to happen." So how did a plane Boeing couldn't sell become an aircraft that airlines can't get enough of? The difficult life of the 717 Well, there are several reasons, but first some background. Even though the 717 carries both the Boeing name and company's signature 7X7 naming scheme, it's not actually a Boeing. Rub on that Boeing logo with a brillo pad and some soapy water and you'll soon find the words McDonnell Douglas imprinted on the plane. AP In 1997, Boeing acquired its long-time rival McDonnell Douglas for $13 billion. At the time, McDonnell Douglas produced the MD-11 widebody and the MD-80/90 narrow-body. Soon after the merger, Boeing phased out all of MD's commercial airliners. But, it spared a new variant of the iconic DC-9 airliner called the MD-95 that was set to enter service in 1999. (The MD-80/90 were also variants of the DC-9.) To make it fit better into the Boeing's portfolio of products, the MD-95 was rebranded the 717-200. However, that wasn't enough to convince to convince airlines to buy in. Even though it carried the Boeing name, it was still a plane designed and engineered by a different company with differing thinking and philosophies. Thus, the 717 was an orphan that didn't belong to any of Boeings product families. "We have the 737MAX 7,-8,-9, and -10. We have a family," Keskar said. "You talk to others and they'll tell you that family has a lot of value." For airlines, there's great financial incentive to have aircraft of varying sizes and roles being operated by the same crew and serviced by the same maintenance teams using the same spare parts. There's a whole of synergy there. Even though the McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 still served as the backbone of many major US airlines like American, Northwest, and Delta, none of the big boys would take the bate. In fact, when American acquired Trans World Airlines in 2001, it sold off all of its 717s. Wikimedia Commons During the turbulent days of the early 2000s, the airline industry was reeling from the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and spiking fuel prices. Which means many of the 717's potential customers were either in no financial position to buy any planes or were dumping its aging MD fleet in favor of more fuel-efficient planes like the Boeing 737NG or the Airbus A320. Interestingly, the people who did buy the plane loves them. "They're brilliant aircraft. Anyone who has them wants more of them," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told Business Insider . And Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley echoed those sentiments. "It's great little secret. For what we do here in Hawaii, there's no better aircraft built today or even on the drawing board." Delta CEO Ed Bastian also praised the 717 for its durability and reliability during a recent interview with Business Insider. The rebirth of the 100-seat airliner As with many things in life, what is old is new again. As the airline industry recovered, demand for air travel boomed while investors ratcheted up the pressure to lower unit costs. The solution; upgauging to bigger planes. Qantas As a result, Boeing and Airbus both neglected the 100-150 seat market in favor of bigger, pricier, and higher margin models. While this was happening, another little phenomenon happened in the airline industry, the regional jet. During the 2000s, Bombardier's CRJ and Embraer ERJ made their presence felt in a big way by offering small 50-70 seat regional jets that allowed airlines and their regional partners to serve routes traditionally operated by turboprops with jets. "Back in 2009 we had over 500 small aircraft," Bastian said. "The CRJ-200 was our predominant fleet type." Over time, airlines began to upgauge their regional jets with mainline aircraft. That's where the 717 jumps back into the picture. With around 100-130 seats, the 717 is the perfect size aircraft to take over for regional jets. In fact, Boeing used to market the 717 as the "Full-size airplane for the regional market." AP "The 717 is very much about how do we get out of the regional jets," Bastian said. "Customers hated the small regional jets, our employees hated them because they looked at it as an outsourcing of their jobs, and our [investors] hated them because they're fuel inefficient and their ownership costs were escalating." "Even the regional operators didn't the like them cause they are losing money on it because we had the contracts screwed down pretty low," Bastian added. With the addition of AirTran Airways' fleet of 88 717s following the low-cost carrier's acquisition by Southwest, Delta was able to drop 200 regional jets from its fleet. Unfortunately, for Delta or anyone else looking to their hands on a batch of 717s, they are pretty hard to come by. Delta currently operates roughly 60% of all 717s ever made while Qantas and Hawaiian, the second and third largest operators, have no plans to relinquish their planes anytime soon. And while Volotea's said that they will replace their 17 717s with Airbus A319s, there still aren't that many of the 100-seaters out there. Flickr/redlegsfan21 Since discontinuing 717, Boeing has also stopped selling the smallest variant of the 737, the 737-600. As a result, the company has abandoned the 100-150 seat market. That's where a plane like the Bombardier C Series, now under Airbus control, comes into the picture. The CS100 is of a similar size to the Boeing 717, but much greater range and fuel efficiency. According to Bastian, Delta's long-term plan is to eventually replace the airline's older 717s with the 75 CS100 jets it has on order. Two decades after it first flew, the Boeing 717-200 is still going strong. Even though Boeing didn't sell many of them, those that did buy the 717 can't get enough of them. That's a sign of a great plane. NOW WATCH: This is what Bernie Madoff's life is like in prison December 3, 2017 at 03:20PM

[tortuga-aak]

How the Boeing jet no one wanted became the plane airlines scour the planet for (BA, DAL)

Flickr/Tomás Del Coro

The Boeing 717-200 went out of production in 2006.

Only 156 of the planes have been built.

A decade later, the airlines that operate the 717 want more of them.

On May 23, 2006, Boeing delivered the last two 717-200 jetliners to customers at its Long Beach, California factory. It marked to the end of a program filled with promise but that had ultimately failed to capture the interest of airlines. Even Boeing's well-oiled sales operation could only manage to muster up 156 orders for the little 100-seat, short-haul-airliner.

Currently, the 717 is operated primarily by four airlines; Delta, Hawaiian, Qantas, and Spanish low-cost carrier Volotea. With 91 of the planes in its fleet, Delta is the by far the type's largest operator.

Incredibly, a decade after being axed from Boeing's lineup, airlines are scouring the planet looking for available Boeing 717s.

"These guys keep begging me to give them more 717s," Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president of sales for the Asia Pacific and India, told Business Insider. "But that era over and it's not going to happen."

So how did a plane Boeing couldn't sell become an aircraft that airlines can't get enough of?

The difficult life of the 717

Well, there are several reasons, but first some background. Even though the 717 carries both the Boeing name and company's signature 7X7 naming scheme, it's not actually a Boeing. Rub on that Boeing logo with a brillo pad and some soapy water and you'll soon find the words McDonnell Douglas imprinted on the plane.

APIn 1997, Boeing acquired its long-time rival McDonnell Douglas for $13 billion. At the time, McDonnell Douglas produced the MD-11 widebody and the MD-80/90 narrow-body. Soon after the merger, Boeing phased out all of MD's commercial airliners. But, it spared a new variant of the iconic DC-9 airliner called the MD-95 that was set to enter service in 1999. (The MD-80/90 were also variants of the DC-9.)

To make it fit better into the Boeing's portfolio of products, the MD-95 was rebranded the 717-200.

However, that wasn't enough to convince to convince airlines to buy in.

Even though it carried the Boeing name, it was still a plane designed and engineered by a different company with differing thinking and philosophies. Thus, the 717 was an orphan that didn't belong to any of Boeings product families.

"We have the 737MAX 7,-8,-9, and -10. We have a family," Keskar said. "You talk to others and they'll tell you that family has a lot of value."

For airlines, there's great financial incentive to have aircraft of varying sizes and roles being operated by the same crew and serviced by the same maintenance teams using the same spare parts. There's a whole of synergy there.

Even though the McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 still served as the backbone of many major US airlines like American, Northwest, and Delta, none of the big boys would take the bate. In fact, when American acquired Trans World Airlines in 2001, it sold off all of its 717s.

Wikimedia CommonsDuring the turbulent days of the early 2000s, the airline industry was reeling from the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and spiking fuel prices. Which means many of the 717's potential customers were either in no financial position to buy any planes or were dumping its aging MD fleet in favor of more fuel-efficient planes like the Boeing 737NG or the Airbus A320.

Interestingly, the people who did buy the plane loves them.

"They're brilliant aircraft. Anyone who has them wants more of them," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told Business Insider.

And Hawaiian Airlines CEO Mark Dunkerley echoed those sentiments.

"It's great little secret. For what we do here in Hawaii, there's no better aircraft built today or even on the drawing board."

Delta CEO Ed Bastian also praised the 717 for its durability and reliability during a recent interview with Business Insider. 

The rebirth of the 100-seat airliner

As with many things in life, what is old is new again. As the airline industry recovered, demand for air travel boomed while investors ratcheted up the pressure to lower unit costs. The solution; upgauging to bigger planes.

QantasAs a result, Boeing and Airbus both neglected the 100-150 seat market in favor of bigger, pricier, and higher margin models.

While this was happening, another little phenomenon happened in the airline industry, the regional jet. During the 2000s, Bombardier's CRJ and Embraer ERJ made their presence felt in a big way by offering small 50-70 seat regional jets that allowed airlines and their regional partners to serve routes traditionally operated by turboprops with jets.

"Back in 2009 we had over 500 small aircraft," Bastian said. "The CRJ-200 was our predominant fleet type."

Over time, airlines began to upgauge their regional jets with mainline aircraft. That's where the 717 jumps back into the picture.

With around 100-130 seats, the 717 is the perfect size aircraft to take over for regional jets. In fact, Boeing used to market the 717 as the "Full-size airplane for the regional market."

AP"The 717 is very much about how do we get out of the regional jets," Bastian said. "Customers hated the small regional jets, our employees hated them because they looked at it as an outsourcing of their jobs, and our [investors] hated them because they're fuel inefficient and their ownership costs were escalating."

"Even the regional operators didn't the like them cause they are losing money on it because we had the contracts screwed down pretty low," Bastian added. 

With the addition of AirTran Airways' fleet of 88 717s following the low-cost carrier's acquisition by Southwest, Delta was able to drop 200 regional jets from its fleet.

Unfortunately, for Delta or anyone else looking to their hands on a batch of 717s, they are pretty hard to come by. Delta currently operates roughly 60% of all 717s ever made while Qantas and Hawaiian, the second and third largest operators, have no plans to relinquish their planes anytime soon. And while Volotea's said that they will replace their 17 717s with Airbus A319s, there still aren't that many of the 100-seaters out there.

Flickr/redlegsfan21

Since discontinuing 717, Boeing has also stopped selling the smallest variant of the 737, the 737-600. As a result, the company has abandoned the 100-150 seat market.

That's where a plane like the Bombardier C Series, now under Airbus control, comes into the picture. The CS100 is of a similar size to the Boeing 717, but much greater range and fuel efficiency.

According to Bastian, Delta's long-term plan is to eventually replace the airline's older 717s with the 75 CS100 jets it has on order.

Two decades after it first flew, the Boeing 717-200 is still going strong. Even though Boeing didn't sell many of them, those that did buy the 717 can't get enough of them. That's a sign of a great plane.

NOW WATCH: A self-made millionaire describes the financial mistakes to avoid if you want to get rich by 30

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[spotteryyz]

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ✈️Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas MD-11F 💺Airline: Lufthansa (@lufthansa) 📸Photographer: @SpotterYYZ 📍Toronto, Canada (@TorontoPearson) ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ❌Don't forget to share photos with #SpotterYYZ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 📚History: The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American three-engine medium- to long-range wide-body jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller tailplane, new engines and increased use of composite materials. Two of its engines are mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer. It also features a glass cockpit that decreases the flight deck crew from the three required on the DC-10 to two by eliminating the need for a flight engineer. MD-11F (53 built): the Freight transport aircraft was the second variant on offer at launch in 1986 and was the last and longest (1988–2000) manufactured version. The all-cargo aircraft features the same forward port side cargo door (140 by 102 inches (3.6 m × 2.6 m)) as the MD-11CF, a main deck volume of 15,530 cubic feet (440 m3), a maximum payload of 200,151 pounds (90,787 kg) and can transport 26 pallets of the same dimensions (88 by 125 inches (2.2 m × 3.2 m) or 96 by 125 inches (2.4 m × 3.2 m)) as for the MD-11C and MD-11CF. The MD-11F was delivered between 1991 and 2001 to FedEx Express (22), Lufthansa Cargo (14), and other airlines with fewer aircraft. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #️⃣Tags: #Aviation4u #Planelovers91 #Aviationtopia #ColombianAviation #ShotOnCanon #InstaPlane #Av1ati0n #Avi_Things #Avion4u #AviationDaily #MegaPlane #Airlines_daily #AviationPhotography #AviationLovers #MyView #AvGeek #Aviation #AviationPorn #InstagramAviation #Beautiful #PhotoOfTheDay #instagood #love #MD11 #instadaily #Like4like #Pearson #Toronto #Lufthansa (at Toronto Pearson International Airport)

[lonestarflight]

McDonnell Douglas MD-2001 "Orient Express" Hypersonic Transport (NASP).

source

[lonestarflight]

McDonnell Douglas MD-2001 "Orient Express" Hypersonic Transport (NASP) in FedEx livery.

source

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 19233: D-ALAM, Airbus A321-231, Aero Lloyd, Salzburg, August 28, 2000.

Around the turn of the millenium, German leisure airline Aero Lloyd replaced its fleet of 22 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s with 24 members of the Airbus A320-family, namely 13 A320s and 11 larger A321s.

The concept of this modernisation and switch to more economic aircraft would have been a good approach at getting the airline back on the track of profitability, however, the timing wasn't nearly as good: In fall 2001, the global downturn in leisure traffic following the attacks of 9/11 and their economic uncertainties in the industry wrecked the good intentions havoc. Aero Lloyd tried to trim its business and generate additional income by intensifying the wet-lease business, however, in October 2003 the shareholders turned down plans to raise additional capital, and the airline had to be liquidated in the face of heavy debts.

Two of the original Aero Lloyd founders tried to resurrect their airline, smaller in size and now under the name Aero Flight, in 2004. However, the restart failed quickly - possibly due to scepticism on the side of tour operators towards its future endurance - and in 2005, the successor joined the fate of demise.

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 20114: N583FE, McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, Federal Express, Anchorage, April 2, 2001.

Many MD-11 made a second career in the cargo business, thanks to the two integrators Fedex and UPS that acquired many former passenger units and had them converted to freighters. One such example is this former American Airlines unit: Built in 1990 and registered as N1752K, she served AA until the end of October 1997. Already by December of the same year, the conversion to a freighter was completed and she started flying for the integrator.

N583FE received special panda bear stickers after transporting a pair of this endangered species to their new home in an overseas zoo. In 2004, the small stickers were replaced by a dedicated 'Panda Express' livery, featuring a full-size stylized 'face' of a Panda on the forward fuselage. As of summer 2024, N583FE is still current with FedEx, although her days seem numbered given the carrier's plan to replace all remaining MD-11s in the foreseeable future.

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 15951: 9K-AGC, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83 (MD-83), Government of Kuwait, Geneva, January 16, 2001.

With Supranational and International Organisations such as the UN, CERN, the WTO, IATA, ICRC, WHO and others, many international commodity traders and all the associated banks, insurances and law firms domiciled in Geneva or on Lake Geneva's shores, Genève-Cointrin Airport is a hot spot for flights by government aircraft and large private jets. Even tody, they often make a surprise appearance in the approach sequence, as many of these aircraft are blocked or hidden on tracking sites. Back in 2001, a spotter/photographer would not have dared dreaming about such modern-day tools, but said surprise factor was no less welcome when the Kuwaiti MD-80 suddenly came in for a brief afternoon visit.

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 6989: N301ME, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, Midwest Express, Fort Lauderdale, March 21, 1992.

Midwest Express was formed in 1983 as a subsidiary of Kimberley-Clark Corporation to offer airline service in unserved markets out of Appleton and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It steadily grew to operate a nationwide network served from its Milwaukee base, thereby going against the trend of the booming low-cost-no-frills competitors.

Midwest Express not only stood out thanks to its eye-catching dark blue and gold livery, but it was also famous for its high service standards including wide all business class seating and full in-flight service, thus building a selected, but loyal customer base.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 however initiated a decline in demand and Midwest tried to counter it with a fundamental turn of the business modell, introducing a coach class section in the aircraft cabin and limiting or discontinuing the full in-flight service on short- to mid-distance flights. In 2003, an attempt was mede to renew the fleet of ageing DC-9s and MD-80s with 25 newly delivered Boeing 717s (actually the latest derivate of the DC-9-family, concepted as the MD-95 but rebranded after the Boeing-merger). That move couldn't curb the cost fast enough, and in 2008, Midwest was taken-over by Northwest Airlines who quickly sold it on to Republic Airways the following year, turning what remained of the former high-end transcontinental carrier - the last of its kind - into assets of a feeder partner serving the dominating major US airlines. Midwest operated the last flight under its own brand on November 2, 2009.

[airsllides]

airsLLide No. 19954: OO-CTS, Boeing 737-43Q, City Bird, Brussels, March 6, 2001.

Using an eye-catching deep green livery and the claim "The Flying Dream", the Belgian airline focused on point-to-point markets and used a fleet of 8 Boeing 737s on European flights as well as 3 Boeing 767-300ER and 1 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on intercontinental services. Two more MD-11s were operated by City Bird on behalf of and in the colours of the Belgian flag carrier Sabena. Founded in 1996, City Bird ceased operations due to bankruptcy in October 2001.