No doubt!!! I know its good for the environment to have quiet engines and to have them burn clean, but I gotta say I really miss these ear blowing jets, smoke trailing.
Yes, the days when there was a selection, 30th May marked 50 years of the maiden flight or 'Ship One', the prototype DC-8 made her maiedn flight It's incredible that a jetliner design conceived and built during the 1950's and 1960's remains in service today .... successfully competing with modern/advanced jet equipment .... most of which were aimed at DC8/B707 replacement having both entered service and long since been retired whilst the DC-8 continues to soldier on. Happy anniversary DC-8!
Whats also impressive about the DC-8, is they are faster than the average jetliner of today, have much bigger windows, which are spaced apart by a metre, and the seats correspond to each window, all far removed from today's cattle class. Many were even fitted with a bar lounge, no other in airline service jet has had that since. The DC-8 is from a time when jet travel was classy. On test in '61, a DC-8 became the only subsonic jetliner to break the sound barrier! Yup, a REAL plane!!
As an aircraft engineer/mechanic and PFE, the last Douglas aircraft model I taxied and for a compass swing in 1995. A 61 was great to start and taxi. With the 78 deg. max steering and breakover rear bogie on the mains, you could do some super tight turns. Miss those days.
Awesome video..love the haunting whine of those JT3Ds when they are spooling up. Worked for Air Canada Cargo in the late eighties, we had mostly 73Fs but also a couple of 63Fs. They were my favourites. Long, smokey, ear splitting takeoffs (sorry Greenpeace!) Those were REAL jetliners.
Great quality considering the age of the footage, classic aircraft, original audio, no commentary and no hideous soundtrack... ...the perfect video! Thanks for sharing! 5+ stars! More please :-)
Agreed again. Love the comment about pancake sized windows on A320s, so very true. They certainly are a style-less, boring, budget version of an airliner, (especially compared to a Douglas aircraft) and if you are next to the window of an airbus the cabin curves in, good for a crinked neck. The DC-8 was innovative in many ways, and surely one of them has to be that they had the biggest windows of any jetliner.
Believe it or not, this was the second generation of DC-8 engines. The first ones were JT4's or Rolls Royce straight turbojets. Brain bleedingly loud. Rare to find videos of them.
I was born a decade too late to catch a ride on any stretch 8's. Hopefully some preserved examples will be around in the future for enthusiast nostalgia flights-
Well you will see them flying again, soon! Because right now I'm planning on an aerospace company for the future. Gonna be making replicas of aircraft (and my own) and adding a few upgrades, including the DC-8 :) This will teach Boeing a lesson for inventing the 777 in the first place!!!!
Yes, you'd think so, the jetliner surely is one of the most revolutionary inventions of the 20th century, an amenity to any part of the world, that once took months to get to. National or indeed worldwide history!
Yes, the DC-8s are few and far between now. Compare a beauty like this with its impressive sound, to some A320, or worse, A380 (only impressive in size) and I know which is a winner!
@rare12inchsingles You are not alone! I love the noise and smoke! Gives me goosebumps! I certainly hope these fine examples of the jet age keep on living wherever they can. The last potentially flyable CV-990 is now gone. Some of these machines should be preserved in flying condition with there original powerplants. I hope nothing happens to the BUFF. The TF33's are at home there and would be a damn shame to see anything else under there wings.
Definitely one of my favorite airliners! But the Boeing 777................................................. THAT BIG MONSTER RUINED EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!
@Boeing757basher07 I agree with you! im only 16, and wish i could have been around in the older days of aviation. i want to be a pilot when i grow up, but im sort of straying away, because i actually want to FLY the plane, not have a computer do it for me. plus i want to fly some of the old dc 8s and 707s.
@Boeing757basher07 While I agree i'm sure the public does not miss 300+ fatality crashes due to the bad practices and ultimately unsafe aircraft back then.
Actually, the power to weight ratio of a 707 and a DC-8 is actually a lot more than a modern Airbus for example, which are often rated as a bit underpowered, (despite bigger engines, but much bigger plane) and also this is why the 707 and DC-8, also CV880, 990 especially can fly about 1 tenth faster than most planes do now. The extra power availabale made them suitable to be loaded up with frieght. Boeing aircaft are genrally fairly good, incl now, the 777 is quite a grunty machine.
Not likely. The way airlines work these days is they don't want anything less than a wide-body if it's going further than 3,000 miles or so. The most beautiful airliners seem to be the regional jets.
Yeh, its a shame more are not at preserved, they seem to survive as a poor relation to military aicraft. They are icons of a quantum leap, while the generation before that are well represented.
Yes they are the dc 8 super 70 series which are re-engined with the cmf56 high bypass turbofans. The same engine used on the 737-300/400/500/600/700/800/900 series. The new 737 max 8 and 9 have an upgraded version.
Plenty far worse things pollute than this classic beauty. A battle axe? Well at least many of such a type have lasted to be old, (but more like a wine) they are used in frieght service, why? Because they are known to be robust, most newer aircraft will never last that long. But there's no accounting for good taste.
I get sick of hearing that, good to see a real plane, with looks and style instead of some boring ugly heinous modern job like airbuses. It hasnt crashed so obviously its been rewired, if ther wiring was stuffed they'd have rewired it. Its lack of maintaince that is the problem for a modern plane. Long may the DC-8 fly! Thorabred.
