them as the other US domestic carriers
and grounded eight in 1974, converted
them to freighters and sold them to Trans
Mediterranean Airlines of Lebanon and
Flying Tigers. The remaining eight soldiered
on ying almost exclusively from New York/
JFK to Los Angeles and San Juan (Puerto
Rico), the only routes busy enough to ll a
jumbo.
When American moved its main hub
from New York to Dallas in the early 1980s,
its 747s also ew from the Texan city to
London/Gatwick and Honolulu. Ultimately,
no matter which of American’s routes they
were deployed on, American’s 747s were
simply too big whereas the DC-10, of which
they already had 35 (all series -10s) were
a better t. For Pan Am, having started the
mass transit age with its 747s and becoming
an airline geared around that type,
standardising on the 747 made more sense,
so a swap was agreed. American’s eight
747-123s went to Pan Am and all but one ofthe 17 Pan Am DC-10s went to American.
The DC-10s were pulled out of service
and ferried to Tracor Aviation at Santa
Barbara Municipal Airport north of Los
Angeles one or two at a time. They were
given heavy checks and recon gured for
American Airlines as well as being stripped
of their livery in favour of their new owner’s
bare silver.
The rst to go was N68NA, which left
Pan Am on November 1, 1983. The last
DC-10 to leave for American was N70NA,
going to Santa Barbara on June 20, 1984.
This left the nal example, N84NA, which
went to United Airlines on April 29, 1985
as part of a $750m sale of Pan Am’s entire
Asia Paci c operation (about $1.7bn in
today’s money).In the same year Pan Am started to
dispose of the TriStars with three sold to
Delta Air Lines and three to the RAF. The
remaining six were later sold to United
Airlines.
Not too many years later Pan Am
foundered and ceased operations on
December 4, 1991.
The former Pan Am DC-10s outlived the
airline ying on into the 1990s with American
Airlines. Towards the turn of the century,
American started to receive new Boeing
777-223ERs and its ageing eet of trijets
found new homes with operators including
Hawaiian Airlines, FedEx Express and Omni
Air International.
Today, one remains in service at FedEx
Express, registered N554FE (previously
N66NA), the 62nd DC-10 built. In
September this year it will celebrate its 44th
birthday. The rest of the eet has been
scrapped or is derelict but, like the airlines
they ew for, are still remembered.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 67Below: Pan Am operated both the TriStar
500 and DC-10-30 on some long-haul
international routes. J vd Heijden - Guy Van
Herbruggen CollectionBelow: McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10, N67NA,
received the name Clipper Star of Hope
in Pan Am service. It is seen at Miami
International Airport in August 1982. P Van
Damme - Guy Van Herbruggen Collection64-67_dc10DC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 67 07/04/2016 12:44