Matchbook from American Airlines CD-10 Luxury Liner.

c1975. Unused, oversized matchbook measuring approx. 3 1/2 x 4" when closed, from American Airlines DC-10 Luxury Liner. With image of airliner on front and AA logo on back. Text inside reads "The DC-10 luxuryliner is a three-engine, multi-range jetliner embodying advanced technological concepts to fulfill the expanding needs of air transporation during the 1970s. The American DC-10 luxuryliner in addition to its exciting spaciousness utilizes the underfloor galley complex that hides the kitchen from the passenger. In First Class and coach there are spacious lounges which provide social focal points during the trip." Each match contains the words "DC-10 Luxuryliner." "Northwest Airlines Flight 98 will pull up to an airport gate in Minneapolis after an eight-hour trip from Hawaii, and the last paying passengers in the U.S. to fly on a DC-10 will disembark. The DC-10 is indeed a remarkable plane, but not for its innovative wide-body design or even its signature tail-mounted jet engine. Rather, its claim to fame is that no other passenger jetliner has suffered more from the public's fear of flying.... Granted, the DC-10 did have its share of problems after its first flight in 1970. But before 1980, McDonnell Douglas was still selling the planes at a brisk pace. But on a May afternoon in 1979, unfairly or not, the public's perception of the DC-10 would change forever [with the horrific crash in May 1979 in Chicago of American Airlines Flight 191 to Los Angeles]. In June 1979 the FAA dealt the DC-10 what many consider a deathblow: It grounded all 138 DC-10s in service in the U.S.; the order was lifted 37 days later.... What was lost in the outcry was the FAA's final conclusion: American Airlines' maintenance was mostly to blame for the Flight 191 crash -- not McDonnell Douglas' design." (Los Angeles Times, 2007) After the crash American changed the name on the fuselage of the planes from DC-10 LuxuryLiner to American Airlines LuxuryLiner because so many passengers refused to fly on them. Item #16954

Price: $25.00