Market Views

The appearance of the firs jets on long-distance services contrasted sharply with the older aircraft used on shorter flights, particularly in the USA, but there was no basic agreement on the best way to replace them. Some argued that fast turboprop aircraft would not be much slower than the jets on the shorter routes, and would be more economical. Others felt that the travelling public would come to regard the jet as a standard, and would identify any propeller-driven aircraft as a product of an earlier era. The right size of such a new aircaft was also a matter of controversy. The market for new short-haul aircraft thus became a fierce and confusing battlefield. Lockheed and Vickers were pushing advanced turboprop aircraft. France had a short-haul jet already in production, in the shape of the Sud-Aviation Caravelle. Neither Boeing nor Douglas had any firm programme to offer, but each believed that jets were the rigth solution. Both had started out by looking at scaled-down versions of their big jets, and by mid-1959 Douglas had made serious peresentation of the first DC-9, with four Pratt & Whitney JT10 turbojets, to United Airlines and other major carriers. At the end of 1960, however, United and Eastern (the two biggest US domestic carriers) placed orders for the new and very advanced Boeing 727.

Douglas immediatly saw that there was room for a smaller aircraft. Of its two US rivals, Boeing was preoccupied with the Model 727 and Lockheed was still salvaging the Electra programme; the only competition would come from abroad, most probably from an improved version of the Caravelle. United had ordered 20 Caravelles in 1959, and the US manufacturers were worried that lower European labour rates would give the French airliner a competitive edge. Following the launch of the Model 727, Douglas, Sud-Aviation and General Electric began to hold very serious discussions about the joint development of an improved and Americanised Caravelle, powered by General Electric CJ805-23 aft fan engines. But the Caravelle was, by that time, a design already eight years old, and it was a first-generation turbine airliner from the systems viewpoint. With the General Electric engines, too, it would be quite close in size to the Model 727. Then, in May 1961, the British Aircraft Corporation announced the go-ahead for its BAC One-Eleven, a somewhat smaller, but completely new aircraft. The Douglas people began to have doubts about the Caravelle.

Programme Launch

In 1962, Douglas salesmen began to show airlines a completely new design, the D-2086. Like the Caravelle, One-Eleven and Model 727, it had rear-mounted engines, a clean wing and a short landing gear, the last being particularly important because the new jet was designed to operate in the absence of complex ground facilities. Like the Model 727, the new Douglas aircraft would have to use runways shorther than those used by the big jets. The development of airports in the USA had lagged behind the expansion of the airlines, and the new jet would have to use the same runways as slower piston-engine types. the wing design philosophy, however, was cloer to that of the Caravelle than the highly swept, extensively flapped design of the Model 727; Douglas selected a relatively large and moderately swept wing, with double slotted trailing-edge flaps and no other high-lift devices. The powerplant was to be a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT8Ds, the very promising turbofan engines under development for the new Model 727. The JT8D was a little more powerful than necessary, but it provided room for growth and would be common to the airlines' Model 727 fleets.

The DC-9, as the model was eventually called, was launched by an order of 15 aircraft, received from Delta Air Lines in April 1963. By this time, the BAC One-Eleven was only a month away from its first flight, and had secured major orders from American and Mohawk Airlines; speed would be vital if the DC-9 was to catch up. The flight-test programme was intensive. The first aircraft flew in February 1965, and five were flying by June. The DC 9-10 intitial production version was certificated in November, just over 30 months after the programme had been launched, and nine months from the first flight, setting an unbeaten speed record for development of a brand new airliner.

Modified Version

By the time Delta started operations with the new type, Douglas was well advanced with development of a new and considerably modified version, designed primarily for operations on the US east coast and in Europe, where runways in the 3,050m (10,000ft) bracket were generally available, and where the near-transcontinental range of the Model 727 was not needed. The new version was to be stretched by 4.57m (15ft), raising passenger capacity from 80 to 105 seats. The wing was slightly increased in span, and fitted with full-span leading-edge slats, and the JT8Ds were used at their full design rating. The first order for this new version, the DC 9-30, was received from Eastern Airline in February 1965. The higher-rated engines were also made available on the basic aircraft, which was then designated DC 9-10 series 15 or DC 9-15.

The DC 9-30 was substantially larger than any version of the One-Eleven, and was more economical, but it faced though competition from the new Boeing 737, launched just two months later. Douglas held one decisive advantage; the DC 9-30 would enter service in early 1967, before the first Model 737 flew, and the airline industry was growing so fast that airlines were racing to be the first to bring jet service into competitive markets. To take advantage of its lead, Douglas decided to build up production as fast as possible, so that the maximum number of customers could get their DC-9s before Boeing could start deliveries.

Doulgas was also prepared to meet any needs the customer might express, and even developed two versions of the DC-9 specifically for one airline, Scandinavian Airlines System. These were the DC 9-40, stretched by two seat rows compared with the DC 9-30 to match the seating capacity of the Model 737-200, and the DC 9-20, a 'hot rod' version with the same high-thrust engine as the DC 9-40. Douglas offered customers a huge variety of other options: different fuel capacities, different engine models and different weights, as well as a wide choice of finishes, internal configurations and other features.