PC/WI: Effects of both the DC-10 & L-1011 designed as twin jets?

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
As it says on the tin

What would the effects if both the DC-10 and the L-1011 where designed from the outset as twin jets instead of tri-jets?

How would this effect the fortunes of both companies, especially sales?

Would improved versions negate both the A330 & B777?

Regards filers
 
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They wouldn't have been. Given then-current regulations (particularly the lack of ETOPS certification) and the power of available jets, both the DC-10 and L-1011 needed to be trijets to be able to fill the target markets of major domestic and international routes. A twinjet just wouldn't have been able to do those things, not in the mid-60s when they were being designed. Note that neither the A330 nor the 777 came around until the 1980s, when engines and regulations had developed sufficiently to allow twinjets to do anything trijets could.
 

SsgtC

Banned
As @Workable Goblin said, three engines was the minimum number required to perform their mission. At the time of their design, twin engine aircraft were restricted to flying no farther than 60 minutes away from the nearest suitable airport. Airbus tried to do what you suggest with the A300. But since it was designed with the 60 minute restriction in mind, it flopped. Primarily because of it's short range (why give it the ability to cross the Atlantic when it can't legally do it?). It wasn't till ETOPS was introduced that that particular model was redesigned with increased range and became somewhat successful. The same would have happened to the DC-10 and L-1011.
 
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