MPC 1/144 McDonnell/Douglas DC-9

The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell Aircraft to become McDonnell Douglas.

Following the introduction of its first jetliner, the high-capacity Douglas DC-8, in 1959, Douglas was interested in producing an aircraft suited to smaller routes. As early as 1958, design studies were conducted; approval for the DC-9, a smaller all-new jetliner, came on April 8, 1963. The DC-9-10 first flew on February 25, 1965, and gained its type certificate on November 23, to enter service with Delta Air Lines on December 8.

First tooled in 1973 by Airfix, this kit was released multiple times by Airfix, the last of which was in 2001 along with paints. It was reboxed once by MPC, USAirfix, and Carmichael, each of those including liveries for home country airlines. Lodela reboxed this one a half dozen times with Mexican and Latin American liveries.

Like every Airfix airliner I have ever built, this one has separate entry doors and some cargo doors that have to be installed. This one also has solid fuselage decals that go over the windows so one has to paint the fuselage halves first, install the fuselage decals, then punch out the windows with the included tool before installing the clear window pieces. On all my previous Airfix /MPC DC-9s, I installed the windows then used filler to get a smooth fuselage and used aftermarket decals to simulate the windows.

Wings are upper and lower left and right halves with separate flap hinges. One has to install a bulkhead behind the cockpit and the movable rear air stairs before assembling th fuselage haves. Some nose weight is required, but the instructions don't say how much. Fortunately there is a lot of room for it and you really only need a little.

Engine pods are an upper and lower half with a front compressor face. The kit comes with fairly basic landing gear, but it is nicely molded. You can build the kit with raised gear if you wish and if you have a display stand for it.

Instructions are well done and have rather generic color information. The lone Eastern Airlines 'hockey stick' decals are well done and will probably still work if you want to use them. The aircraft is in overall unpainted aluminum with light grey wing and tail sections.

Since it has been so long since the Airfix kit was last released by anyone, your best bet would be either Eastern Express or Fly with apparently the Eastern Express kit being the most accurate of the two. If you already have the Airfix kit, regardless of boxing, be prepared to do some filler work on seams. AMP also does a 1/144 DC-9. I was unable to find any kit of this plane in this scale for under $30 and most of the offers were from overseas which, thanks to tariffs and fees would easily put them well over $100.    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-9

August 2025

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction in part or in whole without express permission from the editor.