Airliner World – April 2018

In the

Spotlight

This

month's

airport and

just how

spotty it is

for spotters

http://www.airlinerworld.com 47

AW: Moving away from Pan Am for
a moment, McDonnell Douglas (MD)
enjoyed an enviable reputation for
manufacturing durable aircraft, what
factors prevented it from remaining an
independent competitor to Boeing?
RR: There were a couple of factors – St
Louis was home to the company’s mili-
tary aircraft production, and in my view,
MD never considered building
commercial airliners as a top priority.
They became a government business
driven corporation and it was the military
side of the business that so attracted
Boeing. So, after the acquisition it shut

down MD’s commercial aircraft product

lines. Its production facilities at Long

Beach, California are now sadly just a

ghost town.

You’re quite right! Douglas built some

very durable aeroplanes in their time.

When I was there, I had the privilege

of running the marketing department

and selling aeroplanes. The MD-11 for

example, was a fine jet, but when we

tried to prevail upon United Airlines to

buy it, we really had no support from St

Louis to compete against what eventually

became the triple seven. Part of it was

that McDonnell Douglas either didn’t have

the vision or didn’t want to build a family

of aircraft. We just felt that there was

minimal support, which is why I jumped at

the Pan Am job.

AW: Debates are under way again about

how to upgrade the US Air Traffic Control

System in the US for both general and

commercial aviation. Funding of the

Federation Aviation Administration (FAA)

has been a sore point, what is your view

on the solution to this issue?

RR: I don’t think that there’s been enough

consideration given to privatising it. On

the one hand the Lockheed Aircraft

Ray drew up plans for

a smaller, leaner Pan

Am that would focus

predominantly on the

Latin American market

using a 60-strong fleet

of Boeing 747s and

Airbus A300B4-200s.

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WOLFGANG MENDORF