The History of the Douglas DC-8

at the end of the 1940s the douglas company led the world in the creation of commercial airliners with its famous pre-war douglas dc3 revolutionizing the face of passenger air travel expanded further by the later dc4 and dc6 which helped to maintain the firm's hold on the market however from the significant lead the company held in the late 1940s the transition from propeller airliners to jet aviation was a battle that ultimately cost the douglas company its future starting with the troubled development and production of their first commercial jet airliner the douglas dc-8 a fundamentally advanced aircraft but one that was way laid by construction and design flaws that started the firm's downward spiral as mentioned the douglas company at the end of world war ii dominated the commercial aviation market with its dc3 dc4 and dc6 range of airliners while its rivals the most prominent of which was boeing were focused more on obtaining military contracts with the united states air force their only airliner models being hastily converted x-bomber designs such as the boeing 377 stratocruiser a development of the b-29 superfortress in 1949 though the world of aviation was upturned with the arrival of the de havilland comet of great britain the world's first commercial jet airliner and one that illustrated improved speed comfort reliability and performance to the likes of the rival dc-6 but these attributes weren't enough to endear the airliner to large portions of the market due to skepticism as to the unproven technology douglas however showed an interest in the possible rise of jet aviation and thus began considerations as early as 1951 regarding a commercial jet airliner that will be powered by pratt whitney jt3 engines a civil variant of the j-57 engine used on the b-52 nuclear bomber the first mistake by douglas though was made when it was pressed into fulfilling an order by american airlines chief cyrus r smith who was a longtime friend of douglas company founder donald douglas senior to supply his airline with 25 larger longer distance versions of the piston-powered douglas dc-6 this eventually coming to fruition as the dc-7 while in june 1952 u.s air force secretary harold tolbert commissioned america's aircraft manufacturers to develop a jet powered refueling tanker of 250 000 pounds gross weight to replace the b29 based kc-97 now forced to split its resources between the dc-7 and the tanker proposal douglas established a design office to formulate the us air force requirement officially taking up the mantle on february 1 1953 when it announced to stakeholders that over 1 million dollars have been spent on the project but this was overshadowed by boeing's contribution to the proposal when company chairman bill allen gambled the entire future of the firm by investing 16 million dollars into the project meanwhile in europe the comet entered service with british national carrier boac and immediately illustrated significant improvements to the reliability speed and performance of commercial airliners but douglas was still very much split between developing the dc-7 while also being somewhat of the opinion that jet aviation would not become a major influence on the airliner market with the future likely set in the use of turbo props eventually douglas entered into talks regarding the creation of a jet airliner but had lost their lead in creating this technology to boeing who not only had multiple jet-powered nuclear bombers to their name but were also further ahead in creating a working prototype for their military tanker contract chief engineer on the douglas project was ivor sjogren and while donald douglas senior was confident in the future of propeller-driven airliners his son donald douglas jr was determined not to see the firm fall behind boeing in the race for airline and market domination and thus an initial model with five across seating a capacity of between 80 and 110 passengers and a range of around four thousand miles was drafted with douglas having spent in excess of three million dollars on the project and expended 250 000 man hours in its development by the end of 1954. on june 14th of the same year though boeing unveiled the prototype of its jet-powered military tanker the 367-80 prototype better known as the dash 80 a strong versatile machine that could easily fill the role of an air-to-air tanker but had dimensions that also made it suitable for use as a commercial airliner but douglas were unfazed by its release speculating that the us air force would likely order tankers from multiple manufacturers to complete the contract with don douglas senior having convinced secretary of the air force harold e tolbert to buy both c-118 liftmaster transport aircraft and lockheed c-121 constellations to make the proposal seem fair to which tolbert agreed douglas's predictions however were all wrong and in february 1955 tolbert announced that only 21 of boeing's proposed kc-135 production tankers would be bought with appeals made by douglas to both congress and the white house falling on deaf ears despite the loss of the military contract the blow was not a crippling one for the douglas company as it still led the way in terms of commercial airliners having earned the highest revenue in its entire history for 1954 and thus being able to pay off all bank loans while having a robust 100 million dollar line of credit and a backlog of just over 2 billion with such figures the dc-8 project continued being officially launched on june 7th 1955 with an estimated development cost of 450 million dollars with the aircraft expected to be powered by four jt-3l engines rated at 11 000 pounds thrust and would fly 125 passengers over a range of 3700 miles while orders for the aircraft were quick to roll in starting with a solid order for six units in august 1955 by the miami-based national airlines the race between douglas and boeing became neck and neck on october 13th when pan am officially announced they would order 25 douglas dc-8s and 20 boeing 707s the passenger variant of the kc-135 followed by an order for 30 units by united airlines after boeing refused to widen the 707's fuselage to accommodate six abreast seating the tight race was suddenly lost by douglas though when cyrus smith of american airlines chose to abandon his order for 25 douglas dc-7s which had been designed and built for american airlines specifically for boeing 707s convinced by the fact that boeing had already presented a working jet transport in the form of the dash 80 while douglas had only reached the mock-up stage while american airlines engineers also noted that the cost of the 707 was 500 less per unit than the dc-8 and that the swept wing of the 707 at 35 degrees 5 degrees more than the dc-8 meant it was able to fly up to 20 miles an hour faster much of the delay and subsequent problems with the dc8 came from the fact that it had three chief engineers with contrasting views as to the finished product who had worked without any significant input from the douglas management thus resulting in the adoption of unproven technology into the airframe the most notable of which was the bluntnose variant of the airfoil wing design by the national advisory committee for aeronautics or naca naca's research suggested that the conventional airflow design kept the airflow over the upper surface of the wing below the speed of sound in order to avoid the formation of shock graves reducing overall drag with the intention of the blunt nose airfall being to allow for a 30 degree swing back but still maintain a speed of much 0.85 while also demonstrating lower wing weight and better low speed characteristics the problem was that the blunt nose wing design had never been tested in flight and it was only on may 30th 1958 when the first douglas dc-8a november 8008 delta took to the skies on its maiden flight but the drag issues were finally determined this being 13 above the estimates gathered during wind tunnel tests and 10 above the drag guaranteed to customers thereby resulting in an aircraft that could only yield an economical cruise speed of mach .798 far below the stated cruise speed of mach .84 by the time douglas had finally determined the cause of the drag problems and had considered a series of modifications that included wing slots wingtip extensions and altering the nose profile of the wing their frantic attempt to build as many aircraft as possible to match the success of the boeing 707 meant that 148 units had been constructed with the erroneous wing design and thus had to be retrofitted at a cost of 230 000 per aircraft paid to the airlines by the douglas company while due to a lack of floor space inside the hangar at the long beach factory conversion of early dc-8 had to be undertaken outside on the apron this compounded an already significant debt incurred by douglas when creating new production facilities that would suit the building of dc8 jet airliners the company's main assembly plant at santa monica airport having a runway that was too short to land jets while proposals to extend the runway by 5000 feet were blocked by the city of santa monica due to objections by residents regarding noise and safety concerns leaving douglas no choice but to construct a new facility at the long beach municipal airport on the pacific coastline at a cost of 12 million dollars while also causing a significant delay as all construction materials and equipment as well as 44 000 employees were transferred to the new facility the various mistakes made in the development of the dc-8 caused a significant divide between the management and the workforce of the douglas company with executives lower down the ladder proposing to abandon the dc-8 project and instead focus on their more profitable and robust military contracts but their decisions were blocked by douglas jr who had made the airline a company policy and threatened to sack anyone who disagreed with 10 company vice presidents being hired and fired in his first five years of control from the original douglas dc-8 series 10 the airliner range was expanded to include the series 20 which upgraded the thirteen thousand five hundred pound thrust jt3c engines to sixteen thousand eight hundred pound thrust jt4a engines the series 30 which increased the fuel capacity by one-third and strengthened the fuselage and landing gear the series 40 which replaced the pratt whitney jt4a engines with 17 500 pound thrust rolls-royce conway 509 turbofan engines the series 50 which introduced the upgraded jt3d turbojet engine as well as a dedicated cargo variant called the jet trader and the series 60 which increased the length of the fuselage by 6.1 meters ahead of the wings and 5.1 meters aft providing a capacity of 259 passengers the series 60 was by far the most popular of the douglas dc-8 variants and together with the creation of the douglas dc9 in december 1965 the company appeared to be back on competitive terms with boeing with building capacity at the long beach facility being 118 and thus requiring a waiting list for customers the dc-8 also garnered fame on august 21st 1961. when one example during a controlled dive through 41 000 feet maintained a speed of mach 1.012 for 16 seconds making it the first commercial airliner to break the sound barrier a record it held until june 5th 1969 when a soviet tupolev tu144 supersonic airliner attained mach 2.29 while under test however this last streak of success by douglas against boeing was quickly lost upon the escalation of hostilities in vietnam during 1966 soon breaking out into full-scale war and although 112 dc8 and 181 dc9s were delivered during that year the excessive production rate of the douglas company a rapid production build-up of various military models a shortage of skilled labour being drafted into the armed forces and a chronic shortage of parts meant that supplying the demand for airlines couldn't be met with dc-8 being completed with up to 250 000 hours of invoicing unfilled the substantial losses incurred following the downturn in production meant that douglas was forced to merge with another firm in order to stay afloat and thus in january 1967 the company announced its merger with mcdonnell aircraft of saint louis an extremely successful military and space manufacturer resulting in the formation of mcdonnell douglas a move that helped save both firms and allow for development of the company's next commercial venture the dc-10y body trijet launched in 1971 the dc-10 despite later controversies with the design would go on to sell in substantial numbers and with production of the new model now running smoothly at the end of the year mcdonald douglas announced that the last of 556 dc8s would be delivered in mid-1972 this final unit a dc-8 series 63 being sold to scandinavian air services this wasn't the end of the dc-8 story though as in the face of upcoming legislation on fuel economy and noise for airliners jackson mcgowan a former executive at the douglas company signed a deal with general electric in 1975 to re-engine dc-8 series 60s with d-rated versions of the dc-10s general electric cf66d turbofan engines but general electric chose instead to fit these aircraft with newer quieter cfm56 turbofan engines producing 22 000 pounds thrust developed by their new subsidiary brand cfm international while the project stalled in 1975 due to a lack of formalization for the new regulations in march 1977 congress outlined new regulations for compliance with the international civil aviation organization or icao stage 3 by 1985 the icao regulation staging being based on the loudness of airliners and their average m tow ranging from stage 1 the loudest aircraft to stage 5 the quietest of which both the dc-8 and the 707 were sat firmly in stage 1 and thus were required to reduce their noise output or be withdrawn in light of the new legislation mcgowan formed camercorp in 1977 taking the position of private management contractor for refitting dc8s with the upcoming cfm56 engine and while the venture faced a premature end when mcdonnell douglas proposed their own refit of dc-8 using upcoming pratt whitney jt8d 209 turbofan engines it was the intervention of flying tiger line that saved kamacorp raising concerns that the pratt whitney engine would be unsuitable for their night operations and thus mcdonnell douglas abandoned its retrofitting scheme allowing mcgowan to take on 78 orders by may 1979 dubbed the dc-8 series 70 the program was a straightforward conversion of the series 61 62 and 63 airliners of the original production run replacing the fitted jt 3d engines with the more fuel efficient cfm 56-2 high bypass turbo fans with new nay cells and pylons built by grumman aerospace while also faring the apu intakes below the nose in all the conversion saw a 70 noise reduction and an increase of between 18 and 25 percent efficiency with the resulting dc 871 72 and 73 being certified by the federal aviation administration or faa in 1982 with 110 units converted by the time the project ended in 1988 while kamacorp itself was disbanded upon completion of the program during its working life though the douglas dc-8 has unfortunately not been immune to crashes and as of 2020 the aircraft has been involved in 146 incidents including 83 whole loss accidents resulting in 2258 fatalities the first incident involving the dc-8 was perhaps its most notable when on december 16 1960 united airlines flight 826 flown by one-year-old douglas dc811 november 8013 uniform mainliner will rogers collided with twa flight 266 a lockheed l-1049 super constellation over staten island while lost in the fog and over 12 miles off course the impact immediately destroying the constellation while the dc-8 struggled on for another minute and a half before crashing down into the park slope district of brooklyn killing six people on the ground and 83 of the 84 passengers and crew the initial sole survivor eleven-year-old stephen lambert bolts of wilmette illinois was traveling alone to visit his extended family in yonkers new york and while he was able to survive the crash when he was ejected from the fuselage and landed in the snow he was still doused in burning jet fuel that seared his lungs which tragically resulted in his passing the next morning from pneumonia on march 4th 1966 canadian pacific airlines flight 402 operated by douglas dc843 charlie foxtrot charlie papa kilo empress of edmonton crashed short of the runway at tokyo's haneda airport during thick fog killing 64 of the 72 passengers and crew one of five deadly airliner crashes across japan during 1966 and one that was followed less than 24 hours later by the destruction of boac flight 911 which taxi passed the smoldering remains of flight 402 while on route to london before it too crashed after being torn apart over mount fuji by severe turbulence killing all 124 people aboard on july 5th 1970 air canada flight 621 operated by mcdonnell douglas dc-863 charlie foxtrot tango india whiskey suffered a hard landing at toronto which caused the number four engine to fall from its mounting with leaking jet fuel from the exposed pipelines causing the aircraft to explode minutes later as it attempted to go around killing all 109 aboard on december 12 1985 arrow flight 1285 a military charter bringing home personnel of the us army's 101st airborne division from cairo to fort campbell kentucky operated by douglas dc863cf november 650 juliet whiskey struggled to climb away from gander after leaving the runway and crashed less than one mile from the airport killing all 256 people aboard the cause being due to a mixture of icing conditions and pilot error as a result of weight and reference speed miscalculations in addition to crashes the dc-8 as one of the most popular airliners of its time was subject to dozens of hijackings during a period when airline piracy was at its peak with 46 dc8s having been hijacked resulting in two fatalities the first hijacking of a dc-8 was on february 21 1968 when a delta airlines flight was hijacked by lawrence rhodes a mentally unstable man who demanded to be flown to cuba where after a three-hour standoff he surrendered and all passengers and crew were released before being allowed to fly home perhaps the latest crash of a douglas dc-8 occurred on february 7 2006 when ups airlines flight 1307 operated by mcdonnell douglas dc-871f november 748 uniform papa on a flight from atlanta georgia to philadelphia suffered an in-flight fire during its final approach from one of the cargo containers in its hold and while the crew were able to land safely the airframe was gutted by fire and subsequently written off dc-8s remained a staple of commercial aviation throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s but a mixture of noise regulations together with the influence of wide-body airliners and younger generations of narrow body airliners such as the boeing 757 meant that by the turn of the 1990s the numbers were dwindling with most passenger variants retired by the turn of the millennium in cargo rolls the dc-8 primarily the converted series 70 remained in regular operation well into the 2000s and 2010s with dhl through franchisee a-star air cargo utilizing the type until 2012 when a-star ceased trading while bax global a cargo airline operating out of king county washington used dc-8 super 70s until it was acquired by db logistics and ceased flying in 2011. as of 2020 there are only two dc8s known to be in commercial operation nine quebec charlie juliet golf and nine quebec charlie juliet oscar with charlie juliet golf being a dc862h delivered to united airlines in september 1969 while charlie juliet oscar is a dc-873 cf delivered to world airways in march 1971 both of which continue to lead busy working lives across the heart of africa in addition skybus cargo charters has three dc-870s on its books being based out of the company's home of lima peru while disaster relief organization samaritan's purse operates a dc-872 and nasa uses a dc-8 for a variety of roles although up to a dozen other examples are known to still be working with private users overall the douglas dc8 was a capable airliner but the many mistakes made by the douglas company including a lack of enthusiasm and the potential for jet aviation the use of an untested wing design a costly move of production facilities and the onset of the vietnam war conspired to scuttle its chances of seeing widespread commercial success paving the way for boeing and its 707 to take the lead and become america's largest aircraft builder you

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

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Keywords: Airbus, Boeing, Air, Aircraft, Airplane, Aeroplane, Airliner, Commercial Airliner, Airline, Airlines, Airways, International Airline, International, International Airport, Departure, Arrival, Take-off, Landing, Flight, Flying, Plane, Runway, Approach, Terminal, Douglas DC-8, DC-8, Douglas, Boeing 707, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, USA, America, United States, United States of America, 1960 New York Mid-Air Collision, Douglas DC-9, DC-9, Rolls-Royce, Pratt and Whitney, United Airlines, American Airlines

Id: mDl9aRLBGMc

Length: 21min 9sec (1269 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 05 2021