In 1996, McDonnell Douglas did some design studies of an all-new widebody twin jet called the MD-20. While having some design derivation from the MD-11 trijet, the MD-20 had an all new fuselage cross section coupled with a modified MD-11 wing. It would have fit in the McDD product range gap between the 150-seat MD-90 and the 300-seat MD-11. Though it remained a preliminary design, it would have been in the 225-250 seat range. The wing was slightly longer in span than that of the MD-11 on account of having larger canted winglets. The fuselage would have had a more oval cross section than the circular cross section of the DC-10/MD-11. Only Delta Air Lines was briefed on the MD-20 as the airline was in search of a candidate aircraft to replace its Lockheed L-1011 Tristars, but no firm committments from McDonnell Douglas or Delta Air Lines came forth, leaving the MD-20 a low priority program. Instead, McDD focused its efforts on the development of the MD-95 (which became to the Boeing 717 after the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas) and the MD-XX program which was for developments of the MD-11 for larger and longer ranged trijets. The MD-20 was the last in a long line of on-again, off-again work at McDonnell Douglas in pursuit of a widebody twin starting with derivatives of the DC-10 in the early 1970s. Stay tuned for more of those unbuilt design proposals! #McDonnellDouglas #MD20 #MD11 #DeltaAirlines #Boeing #instagramaviation #splendid_transport #instaaviation #aviationlovers #aviationphotography #flight #AvGeeksAero #AvgeekSchoolofKnowledge #AvGeekNation https://www.instagram.com/p/CXADvQ4MWDY/?utm_medium=tumblr
