More seats? More powerful engines? Greater fuel capacity?Or were the original MD-80 just called Super 80'sPete

Pete, In 1980 Douglas dropped the DC-9 name and Dc-9's became MD-80's. They were different from DC-9's though, they were streched for more capacity and used high bypass turbofans for the first time. The Super 80's were streched even more, had larger fuel tanks, more powerful and quieter engines, and instituted a more modern cockpit. The wings were totally new to handle the higher loads and new antiicing and ice removal systems were used. Muse Air and Alaska Airlines were the main users of the Super 80's and used to use very steep climb angles at takeoff to take full advantage of the new wing design and engine power. If you ever saw one takeoff like that you never forgot it.Glenn

Pete,This is my first post in this forum !Last night I actually read about the DC-9 development so maybe I can give you some information.The Super 80 was planned before Douglas was merged with McDonnell and was called DC-9-80. It first flew on December 6, 1979. It had a larger wing and was fitted with P&W JT8D-209 turbofans rated at 18500lbs. The "Super 80" was nothing more than a brand name for what was to be the MD-80 series. As far as I can tell the designation "Super" was choosen just because the DC-9-80 differed in so many ways from earlier DC-9:s that it was appropriate to rename them in some way. I've seen early MD-80 aircraft with "Super 80" and "Super 82" painted on themThe MD-81, 82 and 83 share the same airframe but have different engines and has slightly different performanceMD-81: JT8D-209,18500lbs MGTOW:140000lbsMD-82: JT8D-217,20000lbs MGTOW:149500lbsMD-83: JT8D-219,21000lbs MGTOW:160000lbsOf course there has also been a number of differences concerning avionics, fuel capacities etc, etc,If you want, you can go to:http://www1.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_...me?OpenFrameSetsearch for "A6WE" and just click on any of the 26 results. You can now read the Type Certificate Data Sheet, TCDS, for every aircraft in the DC-9 family, including the Boeing 717-200 !I hope this can be of some help to youBest regards,Hakan olsson

Hey Glenn, Thanks for the info. seems I wasn't too far off. I wondered because American lists "Super 80's" in the fleet. Where as Delta and United list MD-80 thru MD-88. Thanks for the detailed reply.Pete

Hakan,Welcome to the avsim forums. Thanks for the info. I'll check out tha link.Pete