i believe thats correct:) i couldnt find anything to contradict it. Boeings site basically calls the MD11's tail a revolutionary design to decrease drag and improve fuel economy
anything i have put thats incorrect, please feel free to correct.

Quote:


I will make a brave try 

The DC-10 is shorter than the MD-11, correct?
That would put the CoG closer (more aft) to the no2 engine and the horizontal stabilizers.
Now this of course doesn't mean the aircraft flies like a drunk pig, but in theory, that would make the aircraft sensitive to stabilizer pitch? Is the reason why the DC-10 had such a bad rep in the early stages? Because I believe Douglas came up with something to counteract with the sensitivity...
???
And this I know for a fact (the rest is just ramblings )
The s-duct on the TriStar allows for a lower CoG, so the wing engines could be mounted farther away from the fuselage. hence  turbulent air from the fuselage will pass by the engine inlets instead of going thru them.

And I have always been taught that longer fuselages needs SMALLER rudder surfaces, so the DC-10 would actually require a larger rudder to counter with the yawing  ???

Anyway...this is fastly becoming an off topic subject

i know that there were a number of changes made to the control surfaces from the DC10-10 to the DC10-40(or 20 in reality)  however the dc10 had many advantages over the Tristar, range being the major one, eastern airlines were forced to buy some dc10's because their L1011's couldnt make the miami london routes. in the end the most sucessful version of the DC10 was the DC10-30ER models it had exceptional range, performance and capacity, when some companies gave it a glass cockpit, it made it even better. The design of the number 2 engine is quite clever if you look at it, its actually angled downwards slightly, which was done to help with the problem of the COG. As for the rudder, just look at it:) its tiny, if there is a weakness in the design of the plane this is it, while it doesnt cause a huge problem, its still a little worrying.