The end of an era....DC-10, goodbye and thank you

2/27/2014

A Douglas DC-10 belonging to BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines takes-off from Birmingham International Airport for it's last flight ever: Photo Copyright Charles Cunliffe

Here a noisy, three-engine Douglas DC-10 wide-body jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, and operated by BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines takes to the air for the last time at Birmingham International Airport. Technology has no sentimentality for history.

Biman was the last commercial carrier to operate the DC-10 in passenger service. The airline flew a special passenger flight on February 20, 2014, from Dhaka to Birmingham for the DC-10's celebratory send off flight, through the official final passenger flight was on the 24th of February (from Birmingham to Dhaka). It's also the last flight for the airmen and airwomen who have flown this 3-engine beauty all over the world for so many years. Instead of being placed in a museum, word has it that she will be flown back to Dhaka, and may be dismantled for the scrap metal yard...sad ending to a glorious life.

I grew up in the 80s living under the flight-path of Heathrow's Runway 27L, and I could tell that it's a DC-10 just by listening to the noise of the engines, and just to freak out and run to the nearest window to see the beauty go above (the major operators in those days were VIASA Venezuelan Airlines, VARIG Brazilian, Ghana Airways, Nigeria Airways, and Biman Airlines).

At one time, the most recognized and popular airliner in the world, there were 446 built before production ceased in 1988. Its life has not been without controversy; with 52 aviation accidents and incidents, including 32 hull-loss accidents, with 1,261 occupant fatalities. On that note, a salute, and a huge thank you to all those airmen and women who sacrificed THEIR lives to make ours safer in the skies.

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This is a special section on Airline Branding, and Airline Public Relations written by me on all the flights I have been fortunate enough to have been on. These are not records taken from somewhere else, but are actual flights I have been on. Most of the flight trips are officially sponsored by the airline companies in order to promote their certain routes, and aircraft. Airline promotion and PR related work in the aviation industry is one of my expertise.

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All the flights I have taken in my life are documented on this weblog except for any flights that were taken before 2003. These included Syrian Airlines (747SP in 1985), British Airways (2003 to Dubai), Aeroflot (IL-62, and IL-86 in 1989) and a few others. I regret not documenting them because I never thought of doing that back in those days.

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