Pictures: final Boeing 717 rolled out at former Douglas Aircraft Long Beach plant

Flightglobal.com ^ | 04/20/2006 | Guy Norris

[Paleo Conservative]

The final Boeing 717 was rolled out of the former Douglas Aircraft production site at Long Beach, California just before dawn today in preparation for the start of flight tests and delivery to AirTran Airways in May (pictured below).

The last aircraft officially marks the end of commercial aircraft manufacturing on the site and emerged from the now empty Building 80 assembly line that over the past 48 years has produced 976 DC-9s, 1,191 MD-80s and 115 MD-90s. A further 556 DC-8s, 446 DC-10/KC-10s and 200 MD-11s were also produced in the adjacent Building 84.

The final 717 is the 156th, and will be the 155th to be delivered, the first having been retained by Boeing. The 717 is also the last aircraft to be rolled over Lakewood Boulevard which divides the factory from the airfield and flight test site.

The older factory buildings on the airfield side of the road, mostly built in the 1940s as part of President Roosevelt's 'Arsenal of Defense' strategy, built C-47 Dakotas, A-20 Havocs, B-17 Flying Fortresses and A-26 Invaders as well as a host of post-Second World War cargo, attack and fighter aircraft.

Almost all of these buildings have now been demolished to make room for new commercial developments. The future of the Building 80 site, which sports the iconic "Fly DC Jets" neon sign (pictured below) remains uncertain.

[ASA Vet]

It has a hump right? Must be a 747.

[July 4th]

The DC 9, Super 80s, etc, were the backbone of Northwest Airlines for decades.

And those DC9s are still the backbone because they're paid for!

[asp1]

I knew it. "Hump"=747! :0)

[asp1]

What is it, really? I honestly don't know.

[conservative in nyc]

Northwest will likely slowly replace their DC-9s with 90-seat Canadian or Embraer Regional jets (TBD), flown by pilots working for their new Compass Airlines subsidiary. Northwest bought Independence Air's operating certificate, and Compass will start up pretty soon, running 50-seat CRJs to and from Washington Dulles. The plan is to use lower-paid Compass regional jet pilots to fly regional jets to places you'd normally see the DC-9s or Avros today - like Minot and Flint. I guess their Airbus 319s will pick up the slack in cities where slightly larger planes are warranted.

It's a shame to see the 717 production end, but not surprising. Boeing and Airbus can't seem to compete in the 100-seat category. Airbus' 318s and Boeing's 737-600s aren't exactly hot sellers, either.

Is Boeing still planning to sell part of the Douglas property to a housing developer?

[Howie66]

It seems as though I'm not alone in this.

AirTran SUCKS!!

[ASA Vet]

Try here

[conservative in nyc]

The NASA Super Guppy cargo plane. The nose cone opens to ferry very large pieces of the International Space Station to Cape Canaveral for launch.

[asp1]

It looks like a dolphin with wings....pretty cool though. Thanks.

[stratman1969]

AirTran: The airline formerly known as Valujet.

http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/NEWS/9709/24/valujet.presser/

[Paleo Conservative]

It's a shame to see the 717 production end, but not surprising. Boeing and Airbus can't seem to compete in the 100-seat category. Airbus' 318s and Boeing's 737-600s aren't exactly hot sellers, either.

The newer regional jets are lighter than comparable 717's. The A318 and 737-600 are much heavier than the 717. The 737-500 is much lighter than the 600 which was shrunk down from a the 700. I think both Boeing and Airbus are willing to cede the regional jet market. Boeing is an avisor to the Russian Regional Jet project. I wouldn't be surprised if they put a cockpit in them that is similar to those of the 787.

[null and void]

No, that was a DC-3, IIRC...

[Howie66]

Either way.....they SUCK!

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

well it looks like boeing will be it. i wont put much stock in airbust because they are loosing out to boeing in a big way. that 380 monster wont be going anywhere because of the fuel burn. too costly to operate and is a throw away airplane to boot.

[Lx]

I was never a big fan of the McDonald Douglas DC-9 set up (2 seats on one side and three on the other) but I flew them (new 717)on Hawaiian air inter island and they seemed to be great planes.

Almost like a sports car. Where the 737 seems to take forever to take off, the 717 seems to take off effortlessly. wouldn't want to fly one to Europe but they seemed pretty nice.

[El Gato]

The 717 is a re named DC-95, the standard engine has 18,500 lbs of thrust, but a high gross weight version has a 21,000 lb thrust engine. ( Rolls-Royce BR715-A1-3 and BR715-C1-30 respectively. The MD-90ER has 33,000 lb thrust engines. So it would be quite a hot rod with the MD-90 engines.

[El Gato]

Excuse me for not being "in the know", but what is so special about this airplane. It looks like it will replace the 727 to me, but I am not an airplane guy; however, I do have a VFR private pilot license.

It's more in competition with the 737 than the 727. The 727 is being and has mostly been, replaced by the 757s.

I prefer the 737 over the DC-9 family (DC-9, MD-80, MD-90, 717) if for no other reason than they "feel" more open, and I don't feel quite so much like spam in a can, or a sardine without the oil.

[Number57]

SWEET

We'll have a wet bar and a lot of geeks.

Cool.

:/

[G-Man 1]

To post 50: Air Tran was already an operating airline when Value Jet crashed. It bought Airtran after it shut operations. It started using Airtran name due to bad publicity not the fault of Valuejet.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Northwest loved DC 9s so much they bought used ones from Swissair. The came from Switzerland painted the same color NWA was using, including red tails.