The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 (nickname Mad Dog) is a twin-engine, low-wing airplane with tail mounted engines widely employed for passengers transport on short and medium range flights. McDonnell Douglas started its production in the second half of the seventies as an evolution of the DC-9 project.
At the end of the seventies the American manufacturer began to work on a deeper evolution of the aircraft, to stay on top of what was current, namely the constant increase in the number of passengers on short flights. This gave birth to the DC-9 Super 80, renamed MD-80 in the first half of the eighties, with the change of initials form DC (Douglas Commercial) to MD (McDonnel Douglas).
This aircraft, as well as its predecessor Douglas DC-9, was affectionately nicknamed “Mad Dog” by its pilots due to the fact that the queue lift was made of two parts not directly connected to flight controls, but moved aerodynamically through a couple of smaller fins positioned on the trailing edge, the control tabs, directly linked to the cockpit controls. The lifts were thus free to move when the plane was on the ground and with some wind conditions it could happen that one of them was raised while the other was lowered, making the aircraft look like a funny dog with an ear pointing up and the other down.
The airplane on display is the MD-82 c/n 49247, built in Long Beach, it was the first of three MD operated by Meridiana. It was donated by Meridiana in 2016.