Since we're talking about the MD-11, if it has such modern avionics, and he has, why Boeing decided to stop manufacturing MD-11s?

Simple, the aviation industry is war. Mc Donnell Douglas was merged into Boeing in 1997 for financial problems. Then, Boeing ceased fastly productions of MD-11 and MD-80 for cancel any possible competitors aircraft coming from MD.If you think the MD-80 was a direct competitor of 737 and the MD-11 can sell aircraft to airliners interested in 777/767 series.Business is business. Sad but real.Cheers,

Oh yeah, right! I don't know why it never came to my mind that MD's planes were Boeing competitors. I read a book few years ago about Boeing and Airbus market competition and in the beggining of the book the author explained how was the process of incorporation of McDonnel Douglas by Boeing. He wrote about this competition between MD and Boeing but for some reason it passed straight out of my head. Really don't make any sense an enterprise compete with itself.What amazes me is how MD could create such sophisticated systems for the MD-11. 'Everything' in the MD-11 is automated. Even today we don't create a plane like that, both by technology and the "personality" of the plane -I kinda think that planes have personalities. For example, when you look to a 737 the feeling is not the same of when you look to an A320, right?-.I love planes so much that want to become a commercial pilot, and I'm studing for this, and for this reason I dream to fly many airplanes, and the one I really want to have this experience is a MD-11 even being in a [real] simulator, but unfortunatelly, as the airlines leave their MD-11s behind, this possibility is getting even distant.Thanks for clearing it up.

I must say the avionics package in the MD-11's are top notch for their time. Obviously it has been suprassed by current technologies, but I think it would still be competative. As has been said before when Boeing acquired MD it only makes sense for them to cancel competing aircraft lines.. Boeing also rolled out the MD-80, and took the MD-95 to turn into the Boeing 717. I think as Ryan said if the MD-11 lived up to it's performance numbers in the drawing board stages it would have been a far better plane. Unfortunately in the beginning it was far off target, and only later through an upgrade program did they come close to their full potential... MD also took a lot of risk in reducing the tail plane surface area on the 11 from the 10 along with other aerodynamic changes to make it sleeker I think contributes a lot to its instability problems. I think the 747 always had the advantage over the MD-11 though (I never considered the 777 a competitor with it, but now that you say that it kind of makes sense). In the end many years from now someone will crunch all the numbers of maintenance man hours per flight hour, with all the accident rates, and dispatch reliability. Then we will have our answer. Till then I think a bird with a production run of less than 200 it has done a great job holding its own. Not to mention I think it is one of the sharpest looking commercial jets of all time. Either way the PMDG bird is a great buy.

I wonder if MD's involvement with military aircraft transcribed over to the commercial world. Would explain for some advancements.Jack C

Not to be a total buzz kill, but I prefer Boeing over Airbus, I know it's random but I think flying the Boeing birds give you the peaceful majestic feeling of Flight, with the Airbus' Flies I think it just ruins that feeling and completely swaps it over with Technology, and Anti-death material.. Just thought I'd say that, Back to the conversation now.

It's so ridiculous that people say this. The avionics on the md-11 are extremely advanced and very modern in todays standards. It should be in the hangar for anyone worth anything in the fs world.

+1 to this. I've been flying it again recently after taking some time off from it and its easily the best FSX craft the company has. I downloaded the TWA livery and the old god-awful continental colors and its a hoot.

And to anyone who is a die hard present world realism junkie like me that argues that its not flown by many carriers today, be aware that KLM still has them flying a good many passenger routes, most of which I have replicated in FSX (Amsterdam to Toronto, San Francisco, Montreal)Sure, that is one commercial airline, but don't forget how prevalent this type is in cargo operations around the world. Especially in the U.S. with UPS and Fedex. I had flown the wilco airbus series for a brief time before I got the MD-11, and was amazed how very similar their FMC operations are. Once you learn either the airbus or MD-11 FMC, its easier to transition from the the Boeing FMC and cockpit routines to either or those very automated systems.

(the MD11) might be old in terms of out of production, but it is so highly automated that it almost seems to be ahead of most other aircraft still in production- and it's easy to see where Airbus got their ideas from! Bruce.

Sure Bruce,Especially since the A320 fist flew in february 1987, almost 3 years before the MD11 (january 1990)...Not to mention the 2-man cockpit (Forward Facing Crew Cockpit concept with digital ECAM and EFIS displays) first flown in an A300 in...1981Now don't get me wrong. Douglas - and later McDD - was a giant and made tremendous contributions to aviation. But you have to give credit where it is due.Rdgs,BrunoPS : to Jack C (remark/question about military and commercial business interactions). It's funny to note that most historians say Boeing would maybe not have developped the 747 in the way - and at the time - it did if they had not lost the military cargo plane market that Lockheed won with the Galaxy.

I think after NGX, B777, Dash8, then i hope PMDG bring an expansion for MD11F the MD10 firghther old Plane DC10 with modern MD11 cockpit .best regradsChris

Lovin the angle/pitch of the horizontal stabiliser! :(

We'd love to do something like this, however the number we'd sell wouldn't justify the development time that would otherwise be spent on other projects. Unfortunately most people want current modern planes. Even the MD-11 was victim to this mentality - a ton of people passed on it because they thought it was "old" etc just because it is out of production and not used by many passenger airlines today.

Hi,That's sad to read! For myself, i prefer modern PMDG aircrafts, too. But i would never categorize the MD-11 as an "old" aircraft.:-)I've located another effect watching FS scene out there, which prevents user purchasing the MD-11:Still a couple of them truly belief, that this aircraft is for "hardcoresimmers" only! Maybe cause of the detail in simulating, they ignore the highly automatism and the panel states, if you are in hurry:-)I am sure that sales thing on this aircraft isn't reduced to old/modern arguments, it's an image thing, too. And the MD-11 is imo the most detailed available airliner in FSX, by now. Some love that, some are frightened;-)regards