The construction of an aircraft where the load bearing is done by
the outer skin as opposed to an internal airframe covered with
non-load bearing covering.
"It could do just about any mission that you asked it
to do. We had that airplane flying in Asia as far as Singapore and
had it in the Atlantic all the way down to Bombay,
India."
Source: Tim Rainey, senior vice president for
flight operations at Northwest Airlines, on the DC-10s the carrier
is set to retire Monday, after one final flight from Honolulu to
Minneapolis-St. Paul. The airline took delivery of its first DC-10
in 1972.
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