Germany-based memorabilia specialists Aviationtag has launched its latest line of aircraft skin tags, with these limited-edition collectible components coming from a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The trijet in question is known for having served as an aerial firefighter in its latter years, as pictured above in spectacular fashion.

The latest release

While producing skin tags from any aerial firefighting aircraft would have been a cool thing for Aviationtag to do, the DC-10 was particularly of interest to the company. This is because, as Aviationtag CCO Tobias Richter explained to Simple Flying:

"Now that the Boeing 747-400 'Tanker 944' - previously converted into a global supertanker - has been repurposed into a cargo plane, the DC-10 from 10Tanker is the largest firefighting plane in the world."

The aircraft in question, a DC-10-10, was the original DC-10 aerial firefighter used after conversion by 10Tanker. Today, data from ch-aviation.com shows that it has four examples of the DC-10-30(T) model in its fleet. Aviationtag notes that these impressive aircraft can carry 45,000 liters (11,888 gallons) of water or fire retardant, with the ability to jettison this capacity in as little as eight seconds.

10Tanker DC-10 Scrapping
Photo: Aviationtag

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A limited run

As with many of Aviationtag's products, the company is only selling a limited release of the tags made from the DC-10 aerial firefighter's skin. In this instance, just 1,000 will be available, so you'll have to be quick to get your hands on them!

10Tanker is known for its white and orange livery, with this meaning that the tags, as pictured below, primarily feature these two colors. They also have a depiction of the DC-10, as seen from above, carved into the tag, as well as a number to show which of the 1,000 unique pieces of skin has been used to create the collectible.

The aircraft in question bore the registration N450AX during its time at 10Tanker. While this came to an end in 2014, Richter explains that it was only "this year [that] we had the one-time opportunity to get our hands on material from this one-of-a-kind water bomber and to upcycle it into our current Aviationtag edition." Needless to say, the tags certainly look like they were worth the wait!

40 years in the skies

The McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 that Aviationtag has immortalized in its latest range of memorabilia wasn't always an aerial firefighter. Indeed, data from ATDB.aero shows that it entered service as a passenger-carrying aircraft with National Airlines in June 1975 as N69NA, having been rolled out one year beforehand.

After five years at National, the trijet moved to Pan Am, but retained its registration. 1983 saw it join American as N161AA, where it remained until 1996. After briefly serving Hawaiian from then until 1997, its next destination was Omni Air International, where it became N450AX. After six years at the carrier, it eventually departed to end its career at 10Tanker, where it served from 2004 to 2014.

What do you make of Aviationtag's latest release? Have you ever seen an aerial firefighting McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in action? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Sources: ATDB.aero, ch-aviation.com