Boeing DC-9 Wallpaper, #12480

The DC-9 was designed specifically to operate from short runways and on short- to medium-range routes so that the speed, comfort and reliability of jet transportation could be extended to hundreds of communities previously served only by propeller-driven airliners.

Smaller than the DC-8, the trim DC-9 has a distinctive high-level horizontal stabilizer atop the rudder, commonly called a "T" tail. Two engines mounted on the aft fuselage power the aircraft at cruising speeds exceeding 500 mph (800 km/h) and altitudes over 30,000 feet (9,144 m).

Design, development and production of the DC-9 was centered in Long Beach, Calif., at what is now the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where 976 of the twin jets were built during an 18-year production run. The first flight was Feb. 25, 1965; the final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.