Long Beach's Flying Dutchman: The McDonnell Douglas MDF-100

In the late 1970s, McDonnell Douglas recognized that thousands of DC-9s and Boeing 727s along with first-generation 737s would become obsolete by the 1980s, given that the DC-9s in service were more than 10 years old. Therefore, McDonnell Douglas in 1980 conceived the DC-XX project for a twin-engine, twin-aisle narrow-body airliner derived from one of the company's Advanced Technology Medium Range (ATMR) design studies for a successor to the Boeing 727. In an unexpected stroke of luck, however, the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker in June 1981 joined forces with McDonnell Douglas to create a new narrow-body airliner design combining features of the DC-XX but also Fokker's own F.29 narrow-body medium range airliner project, the latter which was too costly for Fokker to build with available financial capital and failed to win orders from the airlines.

Company artwork of the MDF-100 (D-3246-6) on take-off from Queen Reina Beatrix Airport in Aruba

The short/medium-range airliner design jointly designed by McDonnell Douglas and Fokker in early 1981 was given the commercial designation MDF-100 and the internal company designation D-3246. The initial MDF-100 layout conceived in June 1981 resembled the DC-XX and Boeing 737, but later that year, it gave way to a new MDF-100 iteration, the D-3246-6. Like the DC-XX, the MDF-100 with the D-3246-6 designation had underslung engines and twin-aisle configuration but differed in having the T-tail configuration of the F.29 project and a wider fuselage. The MDF-100 itself measured 134 feet 1 in (40.87 meters) long with a wingspan of 110 feet 9 in (33.76 meters), a height of 38 feet 2 in (11.63 meters), an empty weight of 88,896 lb (40,323 kg), and a gross weight of 151,300 lb (68,629 kg). It would carry 153 passengers in mixed-class configuration or 174 passengers in one-class configuration, and power was to come from two fuel-efficient turbofans (either the CFM International CFM56 or IAE V2500). Composite materials were to be used in manufacture of the elevators, rudder, wing moving surfaces, engine nacelles, and fuselage skins for the MDF-100.

The MDF-100 project, however, was all for naught. The expected rise in fuel prices for jet airliners which would presaged interest in new airliners with fuel-efficient turbofans did not materialize, and the airlines gradually lost interest in the MDF-100, while engine companies were hesitant to discuss development of new engines for jet airliners and a 1982 strike by air traffic controllers exacerbating the financial problems of US airlines. On February 5, 1982, McDonnell Douglas and Fokker shelved the MDF-100 project, by which time flight testing of the Boeing 757 was about to begin and McDonnell Douglas' factory in Long Beach was saturated with production of the MD-80 family. Nevertheless Fokker, meanwhile capitalized on its experience with design of the MDF-100 to undertake design work in 1983 of the smaller 100-seat Fokker 100 regional airliner, which first flew in 1986.

References:

Callaghan, J. G., and Obert, E., 2011. McDonnell Douglas-Fokker MDF-100. American Aviation Historical Society 53 (2): 186-191.

Green, W., and Swanborough, G., 1982. An Illustrated Guide to the World's Airliners. London, UK: Salamander Books.