McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Ship 9880
Service
Ship 9880 is a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 built in 1975. The aircraft became part of the Delta fleet when Northwest Airlines merged with Delta on October 29, 2008, and was painted in Delta livery in Spring 2009. Northwest acquired the DC-9 on March 11, 1992, and assigned it fleet number 9880. Prior to service with Northwest, Ship 9880 flew with five airlines: Austrian Airlines in 1975, Muse Air in 1985, TranStar Airlines in 1986, Eastern Air Lines in 1987, and Continental Air Lines in 1991.
Ship 9880 retired from Delta service on November 26, 2013, and joined the Delta Flight Museum on April 27, 2014. Today, Ship 9880 is part of the retired Delta fleet parked by the Museum Gate that welcomes our visitors.
More Images & Videos
To see more images and videos of the Delta Flight Museum's DC-9 tail visit: Douglas DC-9 Info
A Jet for Frequent, Short Flights
Prior to 1965, Delta acquired two jets, the Douglas DC-8 and the Convair 880, for long distance flights between larger cities. The DC-9 filled a different and very important niche at a time when 60% of all U.S. passenger traffic was on routes of 500 miles or less—distances usually served by propeller aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6, DC-7 and Convair 440. The DC-9 was the first American-built jet to meet the requirements of smaller and intermediate sized cities.
Delta DC-9s
Delta had inaugurated the world's first DC-9 service in 1965, and flew DC-9s until 1993. After almost a 16-year absence, the DC-9 rejoined Delta's fleet during the Northwest merger in 2008, and flew until January 2014. Ship 9880 was one of 97 DC-9s that came to Delta from Northwest Airlines.
Delta was the first and the last U.S. airline to fly scheduled DC-9 commercial flights. Delta used a total of 177 DC-9s as part of its fleet. See more Delta DC-9 History.
More Information
Museum Blog: See photos of Ship 9880 and Boeing 757 Ship 608 arriving at the Delta Flight Museum on April 27, 2014.
Flickr: See photos of Ship 9880 in Eastern, Northwest and Delta liveries.
YouTube: See Ship 9880 take-off from Detroit (DTW) in 2013.
YouTube: See landing in Atlanta on Ship 9880 in 2012.