Check out my nostalgic video tribute to the MD-80 here: Images and a special video: A Nostalgic Goodbye to the American Airlines MD-80
I’m selling some prints of my best MD-80 pictures here: MD-80 Prints for Sale!
For other pictures of the week, check out the gallery here: Pictures of the Week
American Airlines retired its fleet of MD-80s on Wednesday and I was out in Roswell to cover everything (get ready for an in-depth retelling of the story this week). It was a special, if not bittersweet, day and it’s one I’ll remember for a long time.
During the festivities, one of my favorite aviation photographers on Instagram, @diecastryan, and I somehow ended up with access to the boneyard at Roswell International Air Center. As we rode through on a golf cart we saw all manner of aircraft in various stages of disassembly. Far more to come but wanted to at least give you something to get you excited about the rest of the content to come.
While not all of the MD-80s retired on Wednesday will meet this fate (as many will be converted into freighters or sold to other non-mainline carriers around the world), seeing what some of these MD-80s would face really drove everything home for me, that the silver birds were actually gone. Sobering, but worthy of Picture of the Week!
