DOUGLAS DC-8 JETLINER - Southern California Enters the Jet Age!

this is a douglas dc-8 and so is this but how is that possible to find out we're going to go back to the 1950s and look at the first jet airliner produced by the douglas aircraft company in a special episode of celebrating aviation with mike machad i'd like to invite you to subscribe to the channel if you enjoy the programs please do hit the like button it helps support the channel we appreciate it this airplane is the dc-8 jetliner this airplane is the dc-8 sky bus what was that well the sky bus was a 1946 proposal for a dc3 replacement the dc3 at that time was 10 years old and the sky bus was based on the unconventional configuration of the experimental xb42 mixmaster bomber that you see there at lower right the dc-8 sky bus never got off the drawing board but the airplanes that did created an entire family of douglas skyliners uh that's seen here at santa monica from top the dc-3 dc-4 dc-6b and dc7 by the mid-1950s more than half the airliners flying all over the world were built at santa monica by the douglas aircraft company but in europe the jet age had arrived starting in 1952 with the beautiful de havilland comets seen at top the vickers vi count first turbo prop airliner the elegant rear engine sued carabelle and the soviet tu-104 back in the states douglas was seriously contemplating uh converting the dc7 to turbo prop power and this airplane would have been called the dc 7d but that never came to pass that crowd that crown went to lockheed with their uh elektra l-188 seen here america's first and only four-engine turboprop airliner however in june 1955 douglas launched the dc-8 jet in the configuration that you see here there was just two problems first is that boeing already had a jet airliner in the air the 367-80 prototype jet transport as it was called and this was the progenitor that was developed into the kc-135 tanker for the air force and the boeing 707 airliner second issue was the plant itself at santa monica although it was quite adequate for producing piston-powered airliners seen here the runway was 5000 feet long and jet airliners required almost twice that length and that generation so the answer was to move the entire operation to long beach airport which had been the air force facility uh building transports and that runway was ten thousand feet long specific to the dc-82 new large multi-million square foot final assembly buildings were built on the east side of lakewood boulevard across the street from the main plant these were buildings 80 and 84. ironically the only surviving structures of the plant to this day but these were built for the dc8 production and although national has the technical uh distinction of being the first launch customer to order the dc-8 long-time douglas fans pan-american world airways and their president juan tripp ordered 25 dc-8s and 20 boeing 707s united airlines also ordered a fair number of airplanes here we see united president pat patterson with mr douglas making the announcement and eastern's eddie rickenbacker ordered dc8s as well along with a number of european airlines by this time the dc-8 design was frozen into the configuration you see here in this beautiful painting by rg smith and although there was no uh prototype aircraft per se uh production began with ship one and ship two the nose sections seen here in building 84. the wing assembly was next door in building 80 and what you see here is called the wing box this is the three spars assemblies and the fuel tanks and fitted to the front and back of this assembly would be the leading and trailing edge control devices well the wing box was moved as you see here from building 80 into building 84 mated with the 19 000 pound fuselage assembly and on april 9th 1958 the first dc-8 rolled out into the southern california sunshine this photo was taken from the douglas bell 47 photocopter looking down on the ramp and here we can see that aircraft above in this photo of mr douglas smiling and waving down from the cockpit douglas senior was in the left seat douglas jr was in the right seat as the airplane was rolled out of the hangar here we see another copter photo looking down on the ramp with the predecessors of the dc-8 lined up behind from left the bc3 dc-4 c-118 which is the military version of the dc-6 and the united dc-7 you can see quite a difference in size from these airplanes to the new dc-8 trademark of the dc-8 was the what they call the chin air intakes this is for the air conditioning packs and cabin air and the engines that you see there also with the early configuration noise suppressors by april of 1959 uh the dc-8 was kind of making a splash in the media here we see a cover popular science magazine illustrated by the great bob mccall and here he's showing a cutaway this is a fold out of the entire airplane but here we see the nose section with this cavernous cockpit looks more like an airbus a380 but it gave the impression of a luxurious new jet airliner with lots of room and that's what that's what the public was clamoring for at the beginning of the jet age but let's compare the cockpit here's a douglas dc7 a captain's position in the center of the photo radio rack on the left compare that to the dc-8 cockpit living room comfort you see here uh seats for the captain co-pilot flight engineer and on over water routes they carried a navigator as well but a very modern cockpit of the future for 1959. the first airplane conducted low medium and high speed taxi tests up and down runway 3-0 at long beach and you see the plant there in the background with the air force transports and on may 30th 1958 a proud day for the company the first dc-8 took to the air here we see another view as it departs runway 3-0 at long beach on its maiden flight and douglas was in the jet age here we see a beautiful low sun study of the airplane in flight very elegant lines wing sweep was 30 degrees compared to boeing's 35 degrees on the 707 but a very elegant looking airplane and again with an airplane in the air douglas could use photos of it in ads uh touting the world's most advanced jetliner as we see here here's a picture of ship 2 up at edwards air force base where the bulk of the flight testing was conducted and the red devices you see on the leading edges of the wing engine and tail planes simulated icing this is a wood structure that was used for testing the icing characteristics of the wing and tail now you saw that beautiful pristine ship one rolling out of the hangar on the roll-out day this is what the airplanes looked like coming out in production and these were getting ready to be towed across the street for a final outfitting which we'll see in a moment the flight test airplanes could be distinguished by the blocked windows that you see mid-fuselage this is where the test equipment was located and the data booms that you see on the wing tip and again there was a lot of pr and expectation of the new jets entering service united actually had something called a genorama which was a beautiful display that traveled around the country to major airports giving people a look at the interior of the airplane and it was an exciting time the beginning of the jet age and of course ravel had to be the first to market a model kit of the dc-8 and so this was released oh well before the airplane went into service but wait a minute this view looks kind of familiar where have i seen this before oh could it be the rollout photo well if you if you crop it like so and do a little tweak to the wings and engines oh my gosh dead ringer we have the source material for the revel cover and that's why it's fitted with the prototype engines with the early pylons and thrust reversers mystery solved first delivery of a dc-8 was to united airlines on june 3rd 1959 here we see united president pat patterson at the podium mr douglas seated on the right this is a staged promotional photo with douglas employees and showing the first class boarding the what you see in the foreground is a toe tug with the baggage containers and this was a pretty advanced in those days rather than having the baggage hand loaded piece by piece or up a conveyor belt the bags were put into these containers which were then lifted into the lower fuselage of the airplane this is the west ramp for final outfitting as i mentioned the airplanes were towed across lakewood boulevard in the middle of the night and brought over to this location where they became ready for their first flights i love this photo this is looking at the west ramp from the parking lot that's a 1955 lincoln capri two-door coupe on the right and believe it or not this is the parking lot that i parked when i worked at the company gate six is about 50 yards to our right and building 2 which is where i worked in the presentations department was just out of frame and so this is a very meaningful photo to me personally but a nice study of the airplanes you can see that the interiors have not been put in yet and these are getting ready for their initial flight testing here's the tail of the airplane and you see the new blast fence that was constructed to contain the jet blast when these airplanes started up and taxied out for their test flights so the first production airplane to be certified was called the dc-8 series 11 and here we see an 11 in the delta airlines markings quite elegant for that time period let's talk about this airplane for a moment the series 11 dc8 was 146 feet long had a wingspan of 142 feet carried 116 passengers and had a cruise speed of 590 miles per hour the range was 3 900 miles with a max gross takeoff weight of 265 thousand pounds this airplane was powered by twelve thousand five hundred pound thrust pratt whitney jt3c turbo jets the civilian version of the military j57 and these were equipped with water injection the series 21 was the same airframe but fitted with uh more powerful fifteen thousand eight hundred pound thrust pratt whitney jt4a turbojets the military j75 and this airplane had a range of 4 100 miles and in domestic use just offered higher performance for takeoff especially from hot high airports delta and united began scheduled service on september 18 1959 with delta getting the edge because of the time zones there they were flying on the east coast and united began in san francisco i should mention that the eastern color scheme was very complex and over the first seven airplanes it was simplified to what we see here uh the title was simplified to fly eastern eventually and this became uh kind of the standard uh dc8 color scheme up until the advent of the whisper jet hockey stick which we'll see at the end of the program but looking at the eastern airplane let's talk about the engines you see here in flight the thrust reversers and the new pylon design and the reason for this was what you see here in the extended position are what were called ejector rings and this was the shroud at the tail end of the in the cell which was uh moved aft on a track on the bottom of the pylon and this served a number of different functions number one it reduced the noise by 10 percent number two it served as the thrust reverser there were buckets on either side of the ring which uh deployed and then uh created the thrust reversers and third it could be deployed in flight uh and used as a speed brake to keep the speed down during high speed descents by now production was underway and here we see a number of dc-8s out on the east ramp these airplanes are undergoing initial mods to the original wing design but this is a very prophetic photo because it shows the dc8 and pan am markings ramping up production with the c133 cargo master transport at top which was winding down the pan am dc-8 was called the series 30. and this was essentially a 21 airframe but with uprated engines and additional fuel capacity and a higher gross takeoff weight which gave the airplane a range of four thousand eight hundred miles series thirties were ordered by pan american grace or panagra for the pacific jal japan airlines and a number of european carriers including the kssu group that stood for klm sas swissair and french uta airlines here we see a beautiful photo of a sas series 30 in flight over the uh coast of huntington beach and if you look at the forward fuselage you see two separate windows just after the cockpit or forward of the r1 door and in the head of the sas stylized dragon and that was a first class compartment that you see here nice wide first class seats the main cabin was divided into a business class section with three and two seating in the foreground and then in the back of the photo there you see the main economy cabin with three and three seating which was standard for most of the coach seating in the dc-8 the series 40 was a series 30 intercontinental airframe but powered by 17 500 pound thrust rolls royce conway 509 bypass turbo fans the first iteration of the fan engine if you're wondering what an f-104 is doing flying off the right wing this airplane was used in flight testing at edwards and on august 21st 1961 diving down from 53 000 feet the airplane reached a speed of mach 1.012 at 41 000 feet calibrated on the ground and technically became the first commercial airliner to reach mach 1. the next step for the dc-8 was fan engines and here we see a test airplane the whole purpose of the fan jet was that the larger fan section in front would produce a shroud of cool air that would surround the hot core exhaust reducing noise it would produce more thrust it was more fuel efficient overall just a much much higher thrust more efficient engine the first production fan jet was the series 50. here we see your series 55 in air new zealand markings landing on runway 3-0 beautiful photo and a beautiful color scheme for the airplane the series 50 was then evolved into what was called the jet trader this was a combination freight and passenger airplane freight could be loaded through the front cargo door into the forward fuselage and passengers could board in the aft cabin as you see here more than 200 jet traders were built there was one military variant of the dc-8 it was built for the u.s navy it was called the ec24a and it served as a trainer for electronic warfare flight officers who would then fly ecm missions in carrier-based and land-based airplanes the next step stretching the airplane this was built into the original design with the tall main landing gear to allow fuselage clearance on takeoff and landing and so by adding a 37 foot stretch to the fuselage they created the beginning of the super 60s series first flight of the super 61 was on march 4th 1966 and the fuselage length was 183 feet the airplane carried up to 220 passengers and what we see here in this beautifully retouched photo or i should say restored photograph is the douglas chief executive team about to board the 61 for a world demonstration flight from left we see jackson mcgowan at that time vice president of douglas aircraft donald donald w douglas jr president of douglas and on the right john lundelius vice president douglas flight test the 61 was a beautiful airplane with the longer fuselage it really changed the economics of air travel around the world and here we see it in jl markings but there was another step in the progress of the airplane and that was to redesign the nacelle and pylon for more efficient drag reduced performance this was called the flow through nacelle and the cutback pylon and this is what it looked like from inside the airplane the purpose was to reduce drag by five percent and uh this is now the nineteen thousand pound thrust pratt whitney jt3d-7 turbofan and the series 62 seen here carried 189 passengers and had a range of nearly six thousand miles the first really dedicated long-range airplane fuselage was seven feet longer than a series 30 and united airlines used this airplane to fly from new york non-stop to honolulu hawaii the interiors were upgraded in 1980s here's a braniff dc862 you see the beautiful leather upholstery on the seat and the beginnings of the overhead storage these are early small size overhead storage lockers nothing like the overhead bins we see in today's airplanes but it was the beginning of that configuration now if you take the wing and engines of a 62 and i should mention the wings were extended three feet at the tip to aid the aerodynamics if you take the winging engines of a 62 and made it with the uh 183 foot fuselage of the 61 you've got a dc863 and this was referred to as the ultimate dc8 carried up to 250 passengers in high density seating for military airlift command charters or mac charters and i flew a number of these when i was in the air force in the late 1960s and i have to tell you it was a fabulous airplane had a range of four thousand miles and a gross takeoff weight of 355 000 pounds almost 100 000 pounds more than the original dc-8 that was first rolled out the 63 made a tremendous freight airplane equipped with a freight door in the forward fuselage and it was used by flying tigers seaboard world and a number of other freight airplanes also in the convertible freighter configuration and the final original series 63 airplane built at long beach was the 63 pf this was an unusual hybrid airplane to contain the heavy cargo floor and stronger landing gear and higher gross weight of the freighters but it did not have a cargo door and so it was a high performance airplane used by eastern and a number of other carriers and here we see the eastern hockey stick whisper jet era color scheme which was just tailor-made for this airplane really really gorgeous the final chapter in the saga of the dc-8 was the series 70. this is re-engined with snecma cfm cfm56 high bypass ratio turbo fans derated to 22 000 pounds of thrust but i gotta tell you this airplane was a hot rod with that much power it was a conversion of the series 61 two and three aircraft by a company called kamacorp founded by former president of douglas jack mcgowan the pylons and the cells were built by grumman and these aircraft were converted at douglas's tulsa oklahoma facility the 71 and 73 airplanes carried up to 240 passengers or freight had a range of 4 500 miles a total of 110 series 70s were built for 19 airlines and private users here we see a 63f i'm sorry 73f in tigers markings undergoing stall recovery tests high over the mojave desert it's an attitude you don't normally see but this was part of the flight test regime in certifying the new airplane and flying today is a series 72 used by nasa and based in palmdale california it's a flying aero laboratory used for atmospheric and oceanic testing and surveys it's a very valuable very useful airplane and a good example of the dc-8's 80 000 hour service life in the fact that this airplane is still serving operationally today so as the dc-8s fly into the sunset of history we see that there were 556 built total between the years 1958 and 1972 and this is uh again revisiting that ramp photo but let's take a look you have the dc3 which was built in 1935 next to the dc-8 which first flew in 1958 and along with the dc 4 6 and 7 these airplanes are still flying today the dc 3 and 6 and 8 are still in operational service making uh revenue for their owners and operators and a real testament to the company the longevity of the airplanes and an amazing chapter in aviation history so there you have it the story of the dc8 jetliner and the douglas aircraft company entering the jet age special thanks to the great folks who allowed us to bring this presentation to you with the imagery and history and we appreciate their support thank you for celebrating aviation with mike michet we certainly hope you enjoyed this episode and until next time take care you

Channel: Celebrating Aviation with Mike Machat

Views: 116,111

Keywords: #jetplane, #jetairliner, #longbeachcalifornia, #aviation, #airliners, #douglasdc8, #douglasaircraftcompany

Id: eqnkat2ErZ4

Length: 23min 40sec (1420 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 11 2022