MOULD SUFFIX: 924
YEARS: 1985-2006
AIRLINES: 13
MODEL VARIANTS: 28
The Douglas DC-9 is a far less important type in the Schabak pantheon compared to its newer and longer brethren the MD-80. The mould is effectively a shortened version of the MD-80 one but by the time they had produced it the type was leaving a lot of airline service and with airline orders being such an important part of Schabak’s business strategy I suspect this was a factor in it never being a major component of releases. Even so the mould did get some small reuse when an MD-87 was needed and later a modified version represented a Boeing 717.
MOULD VARIANTS
TYPE 1: 1982-2002
The original DC-9 mould represents a series 30 in length and was old enough to have had the small metal wheels. It essentially shared most features with the decent MD-80 offering.
As you’d expect the original mould was updated in line with other Schabak products and gained the small black wheels in the early 90s. Decals were typically updated with silver windows and more detail. This Hawaiian release was from 1996:
TYPE 2 Boeing 717: 2002-2006
In a similar fashion to what they did with the MD-80, to make an MD-90, Schabak went to the trouble of making a modified mould to represent the Boeing 717. Unlike with the MD-90 they did release two models using the new mould as 717s (and a third was announced for the Mexican airline Vuela Mex but never produced). By 2002 only a couple of DC-9 models were still in production and of course Schabak didn’t pay close attention so just used the 717 mould for those too. There’s evidence of at least Finnair and Aeromexico DC-9 / 717s but they are very rare.
You can see below with this Hawaiian version that compared to the original mould the 717 has new larger engines, a screwdriver tail and a modified vertical stabiliser.
PRODUCTION
Schabak’s DC-9 production was relatively small but that didn’t stop them modifying the versions for many of the releases so that there are nearly 3 times as many versions as there are distinctive liveries.
For a complete list of DC-9 / MD-87 / B717 production by Schabak see the database at MADb that has been updated with photos and accurate records for the type:
As with the MD-80s aside from models sold in a blister pack all MD-80s came in this small rectangular box, which was a better fit for them than the MD-80s. Only the latest released Boeing 717s came in a larger more suitably sized box.
A SELECTION OF NOTABLE RELEASES
Most DC-9 releases were of obvious European airlines like SAS, Finnair, Iberia and Alitalia. One of the more unusual early releases was of a Finnair Cargo version:
Schabak would often make German airlines, being a German company so Aero Lloyd was a no brainer. The Aero Lloyd versions continued in production from 1987-1999 however at some point in the 90s they changed the box to say it was an MD-87. As you can see the model stayed the same – it was just the box that changed. Interestingly, when they need an MD-87 for a Tradewinds release they just used the standard MD-80 mould (see the MD-80 review). They also never modified their Iberia DC-9 into an MD-87:
During their decal upgrades Schabak made changes to the Aeromexico livery producing two similar but different livery variants. As you can see here the changes were at the tail:
British Midland was one of the later 1990s releases:
Here are the two true Boeing 717s Schabak made. As you can see yellowing has impacted these late build models far more than older ones:
