The MD-220 was one of the first business jets to be certified in the transport category. McDonnell designed it as a proposal for the Air Force, which wanted a small jet for navigation training and executive transportation. Lockheed won the contract with the JetStar.
The MD-220 never went into production. The reasons vary, depending on which source you read. The two theories seem to be that either McDonnell had too much work from the military to devote factory floor space to the MD-220 or an inability to land enough contracts to justify series production.
The prototype airplane still survives, long-term readers of Trade-a-Plane will remember seeing it offered for sale from time to time.
While the 220 was a failure; it was one of my first digital drawings. It still exists, and thankfully hasn't been scrapped....such as the last series 6 Caravelle at the same airport. It was and still is extremely rare as it's the only bizjet of it's size with four underslung engines on the wing. The only other four engine bizjet of medium size is the other airplane covered here...the Jetstar.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Jetstar; another bizjet earlybird. It still flies and looks just as fresh now on the ramp as it did back in the mid sixties. There's a great vidio on YTube showing a day in the life a of JetStar pilot.
Nice to see someone else holding a torch for these beautiful AMERICAN designed aircraft.