The entire MD-11 project was a budget-limited rush-job to try to capture some market share before the A340 and 777 came into service.

It produced an aircraft that failed to meet its performance targets, was a brute to fly and was obsolete the moment its rivals flew.

Douglas* by the early 1990s was a basket-case of warmed-over 1960s designs without the managerial courage to launch the clean-sheet project they needed to survive.

* as a division of MDC