°±² Northwest Airlines DC-9s, Series 10, 30 and 50 ²±°

                Adapted from Mike Vidal's original design by

                       ΙΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝ»
                       Ί     Thomas F. Henriksen     Ί
                       Ί henrikse@badlands.NoDak.edu Ί
                       Ί     412 Alpha Ave #101      Ί
                       Ί    Grand Forks, ND 58203    Ί
                       ΘΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΝΌ

A continuing part of my ongoing effort to create the entire Northwest Air-
lines fleet, these three beautiful DC-9s make up a large portion of North-
west's 361-plane fleet. The airline operates 22 Series 10 aircraft, 77
Series 30 aircraft and 34 Series 50 aircraft.

Other DC-9s in Northwest's fleet include Series 40 aircraft and MD-80s. DC-9
derivatives constitute over 42% of the fleet. I plan on making an MD-80, but
the -40 is such a small part of the fleet and doesn't differ a whole lot from
any of the other models, so I didn't bother. Who knows?

The DC-9 series aircraft are becoming the VW Beetle of the world's airlines;
with the MD-90 being placed in service this year, the DC-9s have been main-
stays of domestic airline travel for thirty years, and will probably continue
to be so. There are several reasons for this. The DC-9s became really popular
in the 60s and 70s because they required no ground equipment, and had good
seat/mile costs. Also, only a crew of two was required, reducing the amount
of money airlines had to pay for flightcrews on a flight. The array of models
available also made DC-9s an attractive choice for airlines. DC-9s are also
very reliable, and their flight systems are quite reliable. Pilots often joke
that "DC" stands for "Direct Cable."

How to install? If your FS5 is in the C:\FLTSIM5 directory, do the following:
1) COPY *.AIR C:\FLTSIM5\PILOTS
2) COPY *.TXT C:\FLTSIM5\PILOTS
3) COPY *.?AF C:\FLTSIM5\TEXTURE
Then, you should be good-to-go.

A specifications sheet is included the DC9SPECS.TXT file, and checklists are
in the DC9CHECK.TXT file. These are based mainly on information that Mike Vi-
dal, the original designer of the AFX files I worked from, wrote for me. He
wrote the DC-9-51.zip file, which is an Eastern Airlines DC-9. My DC-9-50 is
a repaint of this, with a few MINOR changes. The -30 and -10 are "chopped up"
versions of the -50.

I can't thank Mike Vidal enough for the support he's given me. All I've done
is to repaint and re-structure his original DC-9-51 airframe, and present
performance data that he supplied me with. Give him a line and thank him for
his assistance if you like the planes, at mavidal@shadow.net.

By the way, I guess no description file would be complete with out legal
stuff. Since Mike Vidal wrote the AFX file, he has all rights to these air-
frames, the paint jobs are mine. Below is an excerpt from his legal policy --
I will do my best to follow, uphold, support, and enforce it.

     "Under no circumstances is this aircraft, textures, or
     derivatives made from this collection of files are to be
     sold for profit in any way shape or form.  Also, this file
     or derivative of it are prohibited from being uploaded to
     the Compuserve FS Forum.  I do check there daily, and will
     request its' immediate removal, and I DO MEAN BUSINESS."

Oh yeah, other legal stuff. If you decide to take the info out of the perfor-
mance data I supply with this zipfile, go out and try to actually fly a real
in-the-flesh DC-9 series aircraft, then you're crazy. But you could probably
sue me. If you try to do that, you're stupid. You won't get much :) I'm wri-
ting this so that you realize that this, although as realistic as possible,
it not a substitute for flight manuals, checklists, performance charts, etc.,
in a REAL DC-9 or any other real aircraft. Maybe that will save me from for-
king over my firstborn, but I'm sure the lawyer's fees will kill me. What I'm
trying to say is, "only try this at home!" Thanks.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I love feedback. Pat me on the back or yell at me
by emailing me. My address is at the top of this document. If you want the
AFX file, just let me know. Also, I won't have my university email account
after May or June; I'll try to keep everyone updated when I get internet
access.

Errors I know about: I don't have N-numbers for these planes, I have to ven-
ture out to the airport. I'm not sure if the paint jobs are right, but they
look pretty good to me. And the Series 10 is supposed to have a 4-foot smal-
ler wingspan than the 30 and 50, but I figured the trouble I'd go to to
fix that would not be worth the fact that it probably wouldn't be noticable.

Tom Henriksen,
04-03-96