THE MAKING OF A DC-10

[music] >> The Douglas Aircraft Company, a division of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, is headquartered in Long Beach, California. Here, 27,000 Americans are busy building the world's most modern jetliners. Utilizing 1,300 acres of land in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada, Douglas Aircraft is housed in 140 major buildings, which [music] provide for 10 million square feet of covered area for engineering, test, and manufacture of highly sophisticated DC-9 and DC-10 jetliners, as well as vitally [music] needed military products for the United States and its allies. You are about to see some of the many skills used [music] by the men and women who build today's modern wide-cabin jetliner, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. >> [music] >> It is a complex task that requires thousands of different parts and the efforts of a large production team to make it all come together into a finished [music] aircraft. This plane, [music] the DC-10, is a big bird. In fact, it's a very remarkable bird. It's as long as two basketball [music] courts. The cabin is wider than most of the rooms you would find in today's homes. And its tail is as high as a six-story building. There are three basic versions [music] of the commercial DC-10. The first being the Series 10, >> [music] >> powered by three General Electric engines developing a total of over 120,000 lbs of thrust. >> [music] >> The Series 10 is the medium-range version, designed to fly across the United States or the North Atlantic. >> [music] >> Two long-range intercontinental versions are also built with engines developing over 150,000 lbs of thrust. One is the Series 30 with General Electric engines. The other is the Series 40 with Pratt [music] & Whitney engines. All three versions can carry the same number of passengers, [music] more than 300. However, the intercontinental versions can travel 6,300 [music] miles non-stop to their destination. DC-10s can also be built with a large cargo door in the side of the fuselage, which allows it to be converted from carrying passengers to a freighter carrying as much as 88 tons of cargo. When a customer orders his version of the DC-10, he sets in motion a parts fabrication and assembly process at Douglas Long Beach that lasts 1 and 1/2 years. Besides that, the orders for some components must be placed several years in advance. For example, the landing gear forgings must be placed with a supplier 4 years before delivery. But let's go back even further to the very beginning. >> [music] >> The DC-10 began life by being designed and then going through exhaustive laboratory testing and flight testing. This effort consumed 18 million man-hours of engineering >> [music] >> from the start of design in 1968 to final FAA certification of [music] the first DC-10 version 3 years later. These man-hours are equivalent to 1,000 engineers working steadily for 9 years. For Douglas of the DC-10 [music] aircraft, like all Douglas made transports, requires that all parts bear the same manufacturer's part number [music] to assure complete interchangeability with respect to installation and performance. And the creation of a modern jet transport >> [music] >> requires precision fabrication of hundreds of thousands of detail parts. >> [music] >> Even large parts, like this floor beam, that can be delivered efficiently and automatically [music] with the latest production equipment. At each and every step of manufacture, production inspectors guard and maintain the highest quality standards. [music] Here, they check major structures for dimensional accuracy. Before a new aircraft can take to the air, it must [music] first fly on paper. The uninterrupted flow of DC-10 production is controlled by strict adherence [music] to AOs, the assembly outlines, that assure the proper continuity of assembly, and that enables the smooth integration of components peculiar to the DC-10 >> [music] >> during manufacture. >> [music] >> Throughout every phase of production, the meticulous inspection of parts continues. Whether the examination of a small part magnified hundreds of times, or a dimensional [music] check of a structural brace. And before assembly can begin, these parts, by the hundreds of thousands, must be placed in readiness throughout the production line. >> [music] >> While McDonnell Douglas [music] has overall responsibility for the DC-10 and assembles the parts to make up the finished aircraft, half of the aircraft parts are supplied by [music] outside vendors and subcontractors. Over 1,400 [music] different firms build parts for the DC-10. They are located in 40 states >> [music] >> and 14 foreign countries. This gives some idea of the magnitude of the DC-10 and the many jobs that it creates. Production of a major unit such as a fuselage section at Convair involves a lot of work. Work such as installation of details on an inverted barrel floor section. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Inside a fuselage barrel, other details near completion. Then a short [music] barge trip up the California coast and a completed fuselage section arrives in Long Beach Harbor ready for delivery to the Douglas plant. Though they are built [music] hundreds, even thousands of miles apart, major fuselage and wing [music] assemblies for the DC-10 come together in precise alignment on the Douglas production lines. >> [music] [music] [music] >> For an aircraft as large and complicated as the DC-10, the networks of circuit boards, wires, and cables that link together its many systems and components reach a level of complexity and sophistication that closely parallels that of the human nervous system. Producing high-reliability aerospace [music] products for several decades has enabled Douglas personnel to fabricate the many intricate wire harnesses of the DC-10 with routine [music] precision and consistently high quality. Following the normal course of production, miles of wiring, along with thousands of other detailed parts, reach their intended destinations within the cavernous fuselage of the DC-10. >> [music] [music] >> Assemblers, representing dozens of different skills, gradually transform a maze of parts, pipes, and panels into the [music] internal configuration planned for the world's most advanced commercial aircraft. The set of three jet engines that power the DC-10 undergo detailed installations. [music] Each of these high bypass ratio turbofan engines generates over [music] 50,000 lb of thrust. These engines have been used for [music] nearly a decade on most DC-10s in airline service and have compiled an impressive record of safety [music] and reliability. As production nears completion, the DC-10 is [music] dressed in its airline livery. Here the Douglas paint crew applies the appropriate customer markings. >> [music] >> Then the DC-10 [music] goes to the flight ramp for the final touches. Such as careful [music] checkout of all systems, making sure that they operate perfectly. All that remains now is flight test and customer [music] acceptance. Then the completed DC-10 joins the fleet of one of Douglas's many airline customers located around the world. A first flight like this is very special. It is the culmination of the effort of thousands of Douglas employees doing their various jobs, helping to make the DC-10 fly. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Ah.