Originally posted by MRLIMO:
[*]The MD-11, ship number 646 you saw was sitting on the West Ramp waiting to be painted.
Not quite (I had my small binoculars with me to check with). The ship outside had the tail partially painted and had the letters "CM" already painted. According to Bill Harms' Commercial Jet Aircraft Census, this is ship 645 and listed as a freighter. Why would it have all windows visible? The ship around the corner (looked as if it was waiting to be delivered together with a buch of 717's) had the tail letters "CL" = ship 644. That leaves us with ship 646 which I didn't see.
[*]During various stages of production the MD-11 rests on hydraulic jacks until the landing gear is installed. This all occurs indoors. MD-11s never sit outside without landing gear.
The aformentioned binoculars couldn't tell me that there was a landing gear on that ship. As a matter of fact, it was sitting almost twice as high off the ground as I would have expected an MD-11 do.
/Pete