McDonald's once flew a McPlane which served hamburgers and fries 30,000ft in the sky and this is what happened to it

McDonald’s once flew a McPlane, which served up hamburgers and fries 30,000ft in the air, and this is what happened to it.

In 1996, the fast food joint took the world by surprise when it turned a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 into a flying eatery.

With golden arches emblazoned on the seats and a Big Mac on the menu, it was a dream for fast food fans.

But evidently, the idea didn’t last – so what happened to the McPlane?

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The rise and fall of McDonald’s McPlane

It almost sounds like a fever dream, doesn’t it?

The image of a plane soaring through the sky with the McDonald’s logo on the side seems like a total fabrication, especially in this age of AI wizardry.

But no, this was very much a real thing back in the 1990s.

McDonald’s teamed up with Swiss regional airline Crossair to launch a fully-branded ‘flying restaurant’ – known as the McPlane – offering burgers and milkshakes onboard a regional jet.

The interior was red and yellow, the staff wore special uniforms, and the menu was entirely McDonald’s.

Well, not entirely – there were no French fries, as there were some safety concerns about that element.

But burgers, chicken nuggets, and milkshakes were all firmly on the menu.

The McPlane launched in April 1996, flying from the Swiss city of Basel to holiday destinations like Heraklion in Greece.

It sounds pretty good, right?

Well, obviously, something didn’t catch on as we’re not seeing McPlanes flying around today.

Planes often get roped into publicity stunts

Ultimately, the McPlane proved to be too much of a novelty to catch on.

It didn’t help that the burgers had to be reheated on board; the nuggets often lost their crispiness, and the milkshakes were difficult to make in bulk.

So ultimately, the plane eventually lost its red and yellow coloring and went back to normal operations.

Bizarrely, this wasn’t the only time a plane was used for a food corporation’s publicity stunt.

Anyone remember the Pepsi Concorde?

Also from the 1990s, funnily enough.

However, that stunt wasn’t without its drawbacks either, particularly when it came to the blue paint used.

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