Meet the fleet: PACIFIC EMPRESS DC-10 6ef1315

The old glamour line. Pacific Empress still flies the DC-10 the way it was meant to be flown — white gloves, gold cheatline, and three CF6s trailing that unmistakable trijet howl across the Pacific. 268 souls in the back. And one of them, one night not so long ago, was a man half the intelligence services of the Pacific Rim were looking for.

THE AIRCRAFT — McDonnell Douglas DC-10 · length 182 ft · wingspan 165 ft 4 in · three CF6 engines, the third buried in the tail and breathing through the S-duct above the fuselage · cruise Mach 0.82 · range about 5,200 nautical miles · seats 270 and up · first flight 29 August 1970 — the trijet era made flesh.

Where to meet her: Mission 7. When the call comes that an Empress heavy is inbound with a defector aboard, every bandit in the Bay will try to keep him from talking. Get there first, run the escort, and put the old trijet on the ground in one piece. The rest of the week she flies the line like any other transport — treat her accordingly.