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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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082889
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08288900.039
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 15American NotesAVIATIONPutting Fuel Near the Fire
Despite recent structural mishaps with McDonnell Douglas'
problem-plagued DC-10 jumbo jet, the aircraft manufacturer plans
to add an additional fuel tank beneath the rear engine of an
updated version of the plane called the MD-11. Some startled pilots
at Delta Air Lines -- which is buying the new plane -- are outraged
that the designers would place 2,000 gal. of combustible fuel right
under the same engine that disintegrated last month on a United
Airlines DC-10. If the controversial fuel bladder had been on the
ill-fated United plane when the engine disintegrated, the pilots
say, the jet would have blown up at 35,000 ft.
Delta engineers and McDonnell Douglas say the extra tank inside
the jet's horizontal stabilizer will better "trim" the plane in
flight and is no more dangerous in the back of the plane than on
the wing. "About all you'd get is a leak if an (engine) fragment
went through that tank," claimed a McDonnell Douglas spokesman.