1990 - 2005 MD11

The MD11 was a major feature of Himmelbahn's fleet well past the turn of the millennium. The type entered the fleet in 1991 to replace aging DC10s on high density medium to long range routes despite pushes for Himmelbahn to place orders for the partially domestically built A340/330 program. The airline did purchase a small fleet of long range A340s which operated in concert with the 747-400s but chose to maintain its close business relationship with McDonnell Douglass for the majority of its fleet renewal. The MD11s arrived to the airline in the post German reunification livery and served their entire careers as passenger aircraft with Himmelbahn in the livery as they were retired in 2004, a year before the introduction of the new livery. This livery was the first designed by Himmelbahn in the post-privatization era. Due to the preponderance of the colour grey in the livery, spotters nicknamed this generation Grauvogel or Greybird. Despite the fact that a Himmelbahn 747 was at the ceremony which inaugurated the foundation of UnitedWings, it was actually an MD-11 named after Singapore which had the honour of being the first Himmelbahn aircraft to wear UW logos on the fuselage.
[Edit: The lower MD-11 is now sitting the right way]