Donald Douglas Snr, then retired as Honorary Chairman of McDonnell Douglas, came out of retirement in 1973, to give a speech at the handover of four DC-10-30s to Lufthansa.
Douglas had been trying to sell aircraft to Lufthansa for decades but to no avail. After WW11 the German flag carrier wanted DC-6s but didn’t have USD to buy them but Lockheed would accept DMs so the carrier opted for the Connie.
In the jet age, Lufthansa became a faithful Boeing customer rejecting first the DC-8 and then the DC-9.
However, Lufthansa did maintenance work on SAS’s DC-9s and was very impressed with the build and reliability so opted for the DC-10-30 in 1970.
In a twist, Lufthansa would become a faithful customer of the DC-10 and its successor operating no less than 32 DC-10s and MD11s as passenger or freighter aircraft.
It would take delivery of the last MD11.
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