I’ve selected an Eastern Airlines DC-10 for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. The series 30 model was a longer range version of the then popular Douglas Aircraft Company tri-jet. Instantly distinguished from the dash-10 series by the additional center main twin-wheel landing gear, Eastern initially operated this airplane on the Miami to London Gatwick route before transferring them to other markets.
Configured with three classes of service, first class featured 12 sleeper seats, business class had 36 seats in a 2x2x2 layout, and coach had 200 seats in the common 2x5x2 layout. Seats A&B and E&F in rows five and six have a notation as being “smaller seats,†likely width-wise due to the closet and galley area protrusion. In first class, I’d prefer row 2, business class either row 4 or 8, and in economy I’d definitely want to be near the front. Probably row 16 or 17 because those engines had such a unique sound that I found exhilarating on takeoff.
Where would you sit?
Back in the late 1990s I flew on a similar-configuration Northwest DC-10 from LAX to MSP in row 38, back when all of the food that was left by the time the stews got back to me was those cold Ramen noodles. That was the same flight that the left rear head backed-up, which caused a big blue splash when we landed at MSP, and I had to lift my feet up so that they didn’t get wet too!!!
On a more-serious note, flying from DTW to DEN in 1972, the United DC-10 in use that day had a bar in coach, at the front of the coach cabin in the center seat section too.