Credit to @RepublicOfCrusedPlanes for his D-01-200

About the history of RCP Engineering D-01-200

RCP Engineering's predecessor, Wright Engineering, had been famous in the 1950s for manufacturing airliners, including some revolutionary ones like the W-2000

However, in 1964, Wright Engineering went nearly bankrupt as it could not outcompete airliners like the 707, 737 and DC-8, and the company stopped producing aircraft. It was only revived when the new Republic of Cursed Planes government placed a 86% stake in the company in 1969, nationalising it.

To recover, RCP Engineering was tasked by the government to build military aircraft for the air force. This provided a cushion for RCP Engineering to fall back on, and by 1976, the company had financially recovered.

Even though the company was successful building fighter jets, it still always wanted to go back to the glory days and build great airliners. So in 1979, plans were submitted for a new 150-passenger jet, that could rival the 737.

The new airliner, named D-XX, would have a T-tail configuration with the engines on top of the wings, much like the VFW 614. Apart from giving the aircraft a rather unique appearance, it allowed the D-XX to land at even the most poorly-maintained airports, giving it immense flexibility.

By 1982, the design was finalised and green-lighted. The prototype D-01-100 made its first flight on 8 April 1986, and by 1989, the D-01-200 (production model) started selling to customers.

In 1992, a stretched version that could carry 186 passengers, the D-01-300, was released. It turned out to be more popular than the -200, as it had more capacity.

In 2007, a “D-01 Advanced”was proposed, featuring more advanced technology and updated CFM-LEAP-1b engines, similar to those used on the A320neo. On 7 August 2010, the prototype D-01a-3, the Advanced version of the D-01-300, took to the skies for the first time.

In 2013, deliveries to customers began. The Advanced model was branded the D-01a, while the current D-01-200 and -300 were branded as the D-01c (c for current/classic).

In 2020, the last D-01 Classic, a -300, rolled off the assembly line. The Classic’s manufacturing efforts were switched to production of the Advanced series, and today, only the Advanced models, the D-01-2 and D-01-3, are being produced.

About the history of LTU Luftransport -Unternhehmen D-01-200

In the mid-1980s, LTU Luftransport-Unternhehmen, a leisure airline headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, found that some of the charter flights they flew directly did not have enough charter passengers to fill a single aircraft. Therefore, LTU believed that it should need a 120 person medium and short haul mainline aircraft. At that time, the last medium and short haul aircraft in the fleet was the Sud-Aviation SE-210 Caravelle 10B1R produced in France, which had already retired in 1979, LTU began searching for such an aircraft, and they approached RCP Engineering to purchase the D-01-200 because it was the most economical aircraft in this class at the time, and the progress of the purchase project was very rapid. Finally, on December 11, 1986, LTU officially ordered ten D-01-200 aircraft from RCP Engineering, with a total order value of over 260 million US dollars. This order also made LTU a successor to the Island System Airways, The fourth user after RCP Express and VARIG Linhas Aereas, as well as later KLM Koninklijke Luchtraat Maatschappij and Asiana Airlines, became the first user of RCP Engineering D-01-200. On April 8, 1989, the first prototype of the D-01-100 made its maiden flight from Walter E. White International Airport, and on April 8, 1990, LTU received their first D-01-200 with registration number D-ABDR, Equipped with two CFM International CFM56-5A1/F, with a single thrust of up to 25000 lbf (111KN), and following the route from Dusseldorf (DUS/EDDL) to the Lebanese capital Beirut (BEY/OLBA), the D-01-200 brought huge profits to LTU due to its excellent economy and astonishing reliability in subsequent use. LTU plans to purchase a second batch of 15 D-01-200 aircraft, However, due to the liberalization of European air transportation in the early 1990s, a fierce price war broke out among airlines, making expansion plans no longer realistic. This also led to LTU canceling its plan to purchase the second batch of D-01-200, and the remaining nine D-01-200 aircraft in the first batch were delivered between 1991 and 1994. A few years later, the LTU Air Flight 807 Mediterranean aircrash occurred on September 25, 1998, The other nine D-01-200 aircraft in the fleet were temporarily grounded, and this air crash caused huge public opinion in Germany. Due to the gradual decline in LTU's annual net profit, LTU plans to retire the D-01-200 ahead of schedule. With the Great Depression in the aviation industry caused by the 9/11 incident and the delivery of A320-200 and A321-100, LTU is determined to retire the D-01-200 ahead of schedule. After 13 years of service at LTU, on June 28, 2007, The last D-01-200 D-ABDQ was officially retired after the implementation of Faro (FAO/LPFR) - Dusseldorf (DUS/EDDL) LTU 720 flight, ending the service life of D-01-200 in LTU. With the official acquisition of LTU by Air Berlin on October 13, 2009, LTU also disappeared in the long history of aviation,But the fate of LTU's first D-01-200 D-ABDR was not very fortunate.

LTU 807-SHATTERED IN SECOND

The Incident aircraft,D-ABDR, was at Xinshan International Airport (IATA: XSH/ICAO: XSHA) on September 25, 1998 at 11am, ten hours before flight 807

Friday, September 25, 1998 at 20:47 pm (UTC+1:00) Dusseldorf, Germany

A RCP Engineering D-01-200 with registration number D-ABDR is preparing to fly from Düsseldorf Airport (DUS/EDDL) to Djerba Zarzis International Airport (DJE/DTTJ) near Gabès Bay, Tunisia. The plane made its first flight on March 3, 1990,and delivered LTU Luftransport Internehmen, MSN/Manufacturer Serial Number: 48470, LN: 025, equipped with two CFM International CFM56-5A1/F on April 8, the same year, The single thrust was 25000 lbf (111 KN), and as of the time of the incident, the aircraft had an age of eight years, five months, and seventeen days, with a total cost of 32078 hours. It carried out 10771 flights,and the responsible captain for this flight was 57-years-old Wolfgang Clark, who became a pilot at the age of 19. He joined LTU in 1969 and had the qualifications of co pilot for Fokker 28 Fellowship, Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, Boeing 767-300ER McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and RCP Engineering D-01-200 have the captain qualifications. He began piloting the D-01-200 in May 1990 and was also one of the first pilots to fly the D-01-200, with a total flight time of 27760 hours and 5700 hours on the D-01-200. His partner is 42-year-old co pilot Hans Sona, who joined LTU in 1978 and owns Boeing 757-200, The captain qualification of Boeing 767-300ER McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the co pilot qualification of RCP Engineering D-01-200 started to fly D-01-200 in 1995, with a total flight time of 9300 hours. The flight time on D-01-200 was 2100 hours. There were 102 passengers and 5 crew members on the plane. Most of the passengers were Germans who went to Tunisia for vacation. At 21:09 p.m., LTU 807 started to take off and run. The plane took off from Düsseldorf Airport at 21:10 local time, 40 minutes after takeoff, when the aircraft was cruising over the Mediterranean at an altitude of 39000 feet, a huge crack suddenly appeared at the tail of the aircraft, causing the cabin to lose pressure. Then the aircraft broke into four sections and crashed at 21:50 local time in the Mediterranean, 730 kilometers north of the destination airport. When the air traffic control in charge of the last segment of the airspace that LTU 807 flew discovered that LTU 807 had disappeared on the radar, it was considered a major event,The next morning, Media around the world began to report LTU807, the missing flight, and the German government also entrusted the Italian Navy to search for the aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. At 14:48 that afternoon, the Italian Navy found oil stains on the sea, and 30 minutes later found the first piece of wreckage of the aircraft, then found more wreckage, wings, nose, engine, and no traces of survivors, CVR and FDR were also discovered on the Mediterranean seabed on September 30th and October 17th

Investigation

Later, RCTSB of Republic Of CrusePlanes (based on the imitation of NTSB) and Budndestelle für Flugunfallbackstersuchung BFU of Germany began the investigation. After a period of no clue, when the salvage team salvaged the 717th piece of wreckage, the investigator found that this piece of wreckage was different from other wrecks, and it was obviously a reinforcing plate. Then the investigator searched the maintenance documents of LTU aircraft of the same model, and found the cause of the crash, On March 31, 1992, when D-ABDR landed at Düsseldorf Airport while flying the route from Frankfurt (FRA/EDDF) to Düsseldorf Airport, the tail of the aircraft was scratched, and then it was repaired at LTU Technik. At that time, the person in charge of maintenance did not carry out maintenance according to the replacement standard of RCP Engineering, but only strengthened the damaged part. After thousands of times of pressurization, the tail of the aircraft finally could not bear, The aircraft eventually disintegrated over the Mediterranean. Two years after the accident, RCTSB and BFU released a final report on September 25, 2000, stating that the reason was due to careless maintenance. The aircraft eventually disintegrated due to excessive pressurization. The maintenance manager was ultimately sentenced to eight years of imprisonment.

Follow-up

1.LTU will compensate the families of the victims at a price of 250000 euros per victim.
2.LTU has strengthened their maintenance standards, and there has been no similar accident since then.
3.After the accident, on September 30, 1998, LTU changed the flight number of the route from Düsseldorf Airport (DUS/EDDL) to Djerba Zarzis International Airport (DJE/DTTJ) from LTU 807 to LTU 821, and the return flight number from LTU 808 to LTU 822
4.Two days after the accident, on September 27, 1998, the German government announced a day of mourning for the LTU 807 victims, and set this day every year as the National day of mourning
5.This air crash also sparked huge public opinion in Germany, and due to the gradual decline in LTU's annual net profit at that time, LTU planned to retire D-01-200 ahead of schedule.
6.This air crash also became the first fatal air crash that occurred in the D-01-200 since its production began in 1989, and became the deadliest air crash with the highest number of fatalities in the D-01-200

D-ABDR, landing at Xinshan International Airport (IATA: XSH/ICAO: XSHA) on September 11th, 1995

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