Bruce's Planespotting Guide

There are currently no 3-engine jets in production. The three models that have two engines under the wings and one in the tail are the McDonnell-Douglas MD-11, Douglas DC-10, and Lockheed L1011 "Tristar". Place your mouse over the red links below to see the
illustration highlighted.

Q Douglas Aircraft produced the DC-10 from 1968 to 1989, 446 aircraft in all. Of the 200 remaining
in service, 40% of them belong to FedEx as freighters. The only other operator in North America
is Omni Air, with several DC-10s being used for military charters.

Q McDonnell-Douglas produced the MD-11 from 1990 to 2001, but it did not sell well and
only 200 were built. Currently 174 remain in service, the largest operators being FedEx, UPS,
and Lufthansa Cargo. Many of these freighters were converted from passenger versions.

Q Lockheed produced the L1011 from 1970 to 1982, only 250 in all since this model was a
commercial failure. Of those, about half have been scrapped and only 23 remain in service
throughout the world - none in the U.S.

The MD-11 was designed as a newer version of the DC-10 and so both are nearly identical except that the MD-11 has large wingtip extensions called winglets and the DC-10 does not. Another difference is the tailcone at the very end of the fuselage - on the DC-10 it is rounded while the MD-11 is wedge-shaped	McDonnell-Douglas MD-11
The DC-10 and L1011 are similar in size while the MD-11 is longer. The most obvious difference between a DC-10/MD-11 (above) and L1011 is the tail engine goes straight through the tail on the DC-10/MD-11 and on the L1011 the inlet has a distinctive curve and the exhaust outlet is at the bottom of the tail.	Douglas DC-10
	Lockheed L-1011 "Tri-Star"

A typical cabin of an aircraft like this would look like the seat map on the right. There aircraft are called "widebodies" because the cabin has two aisles with several galleys & lavatories in the front, middle, and rear. Airlines can have different seating configurations with 1, 2, or 3 classes. The typical 3-class MD-11 configuration on the right would hold about 300 passengers.