In 1984–1985, McDonnell Douglas proposed a 173-passenger, stretch of the MD-80 called the MD-89, which would use the International Aero Engines V2500 engine instead of the regular JT8D-200 series engines. The MD-89 was intended to have two fuselage plugs forward of the wing and one fuselage plug aft of the wing. IAE and McDonnell Douglas announced an agreement to jointly market this derivative on February 1, 1985, but the concept was subsequently deprioritized in favor of the proposed MD-91 and MD-92 derivatives using ultra-high bypass (UHB) propfan engines. By 1989, however, lack of airline orders for the UHB derivatives caused McDonnell Douglas to return to the IAE V2500 engines to launch its MD-90 series aircraft.