Vanguard Airlines Douglas/McDonnell-Douglas Heritage Poster

At the beginning of the Jet Age, Vanguard Airlines was quick to adopt an "all Jet powered" fleet, with the addition of various aircraft such as the Boeing 707, 727, Convair 880, Vickers Viscount Turboprops, and, in the largest numbers, the Douglas DC-9. The DC-9 played a pivotal role in the airline's transition from prewar and postwar piston powered airliners, allowing for jets to serve the smaller cities in the system, on a shorter timetable.

In 1966, Vanguard would take delivery of it's first DC-9, and after a brief introduction period, was put into service in Memphis on the "old milk run" to Houston via Greenville, Monroe, and Shreveport, replacing the Convair 440s that had run the route since 1951. This would cement one of the biggest partnerships in aviation history, between Vanguard Airlines and McDonnell-Douglas. The DC-9 would become the most versatile aircraft in the fleet, operating to almost every destination the airline served. The DC-9 family of aircraft would outlast it's earliest rivals, such as the Boeing 727 and early Boeing 737s.

The fleet would grow with the addition of the Series 30 and Series 50, and eventually further with the MD80 and MD90 series aircraft. Between all variants, over 450 airframes would be operated by Vanguard between 1966 and 2013, which the last MD90 and MD88 were retired on the same day. A DC-9-30 was preserved, and added to the Vanguard Airlines Flight Museum in Memphis in 2010.

[Updated Feb '22]