I flew most every model of the DC8. The 62's were hot rods. Probably my most favorite airliner that I've flown and I'm type rated in many. Retired now.
I'm not a pilot but I worked with a Vietnamese refugee who was a former pilot for Vietnam Airlines. (on the production line a GM engine plant! - he was probably making $7/hour) He said the DC-8 was the most beautiful and loved of all civilian airliners by the airlines crews.
One of my earliest memories of aircraft was watching a DC-8 take off from Prestwick when I was about five years old. I think It was an Air Canada, but I could be wrong. The engines screamed. The ground shook. And a little boy from Paisley was absolutely captivated. I still love the DC-8.
Fantastic vintage footage taken the summer before I began high school! Those engines on the DC-8 have a whistling sound reminiscent of those on the C-5 Galaxy.
My first flight was on a DC-8 and they gave me plastic wings which I think I still have. It was a demo flight at the LA airport (Imperial Hwy) and the flight flew to Catalina Island, made a turn east and returned to LAX for a landing on 25 left. The flights were $5.00 and designed to introduce jet travel to the public. I was hooked and watched as an El Segundo resident for years as these wonderful aircraft departed and arrived. "Kick the tires and light the fires" ! Changed our lives forever.
Sublime. I'm lucky enough to have flown the 787 back and forth from the west coast of the USA to various Asian cities and back. (Before I took the upgrade to the left seat of the 737) And as cool as the 787 is, there is something magical about a huffer cart started, four engined, three man cockpit, low-bypass turbofan intercontinental airliner leaving on a long journey. More romance and magic. No GPS, just a couple of Litton or AC Delco INS's. And a junky analog autopilot that was suspect enough to bear close watching. And galleys stuffed with much better food than what ours now contain. No CPDLC, just static-filled HF position reports every hour. No map. Just a centered HSI needle with the autopilot in NAV/INS. And a shiny, two-tone cheatline leftover from the sixties
Amazing video quality from 22 years ago, and wonderful capture from analog to digital. What a treat. I was a freshman on college sleeping in the USA when this video was shot. What a treat!
My favorite plane of all time. I still have a large framed photo on my living room wall of the left wing & engines taken high over the Pacific Ocean on May 17, 1970. Eventually I ended up as a flight engineer on the -62 like this one flying military charters all over the world. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
+Big Valley I also have a 16mm movie reel ( color ) of a DC8 take off from Newark NJ showing the starboard wing & turbofan engines with the hudson river in the background. Taken in 1967 with my dad's home movie camera. I just need to find a 16mm projector to watch it. Hard to come by these days....
Undoubtedly the strongest airframe I've ever flown (I also flew the 707, 727 and 747), and the -62 was my personal favorite. I trained on the -21, -51 and -61 for my F/E ticket and flew (F/O and Captain) the -54F, -55F, -62, -63, -71 and -73 for more than 7,000 hours. I am also typed in a few others, but the DC-8 was special. I am also retired now, do not miss it either. One should know when it is time to pass on the mantle to a younger bunch, and I did. Now........ if I could fly the DC-8 again......... No, their time has come and gone as well, but she is a classic.
My dad used to take me to Prestwick in the 70's to watch the planes and I also remember the Air Canada DC 8. I think there was also a Canadian Pacific plane used to land there.
@kenpalmer1965 The DC8-62 series first flew in 1966.... I would assume since it was at the gate and it said Japan Air Lines on it that it was indeed in regular passenger service. Japan Air Lines still flies today.
I went plane spotting at Gatwick (near London) in the mid-70s. I saw DC-8s there. Not sure which airline - might have been the Spanish airline Iberia. Back then you could see: de Havilland Comet 4Cs, BAC 1-11s, and Sud Aviation Caravelles (with their odd triangular windows).
I remember two round trips Rio de Janeiro Caracas Miami, DC-8 33 PP-PDS, ex Panair do Brasil. Impressive descend performance with both inner engines #2 & #3 with reversers deployed in flight.
That VARIG paint job looked great on -PDS in Miami. The ejectors on those JT4A engines really looked neat too. My guess is that they used inflight reverse to get her down for the landing at Maiquetia in both directions, northbound and southbound. Northbound because Maiquetia is right on the coastal edge of mountains, and southbound because Curacao would never let you start down when it was time because of the need to handoff to the Venezuelan ATC at cruise altitude until they had you on radar, usually about 35-45 miles later than you wanted to start down. I used to fly a cargo -63 into Maiquetia for VIASA and we would land at 275,000 lbs, so it was essential to use reverse to get down because she would accelerate up to barber pole in a heartbeat and be impossible to get a high rate of descent, but I would use the reverse only after slowing to 250 or less to minimize the stress on the airframe. Those were the days! I'm retired now too.
I got to fly on Air Canada Dc-8's several times back in the seventies. Got to visit the cockpit of one of them in November 1975 on a flight from Paris to Montreal - very cool.
My last flight in a DC8 was from BIAK to Tokio @ Anchorage-Alaska @ Iceland to Amsterdam Schiphol - Oost .... 29 hours The Netherlands Nieuw-Guinea 1962 ...
Indeed. But so were the 707's, back in the day. And after watching footage of the original Dash-80, with all four engines spouting pure black smoke, we've come a long way. I recall being on the observation deck, at Greater Cincinnati airport, watching the big 4-engine planes (DC-8's and 707's) coming in, and just being bombarded by stinky, black exhaust. As a little kid watching this, it was a mix of fear and exhilaration. These planes wouldn't be allowed to fly in this day and age. Awesome!
I suppose UPS is still flying a lot of DC-8's. FedEx fly these beautiful MD-11's in and out of Oakland everyday, right over my house. It's too bad that since that DC-10 crash in 1979, the reputation of the DC-10/MD-11 as a passenger liner went slowly downhill. They were big, comfortable widebodies to fly on. I miss the L-1011's, as well. Last time I was on a DC-8 was flying Capital Air from SF to NYC in 1982, sitting in the smoking section!
Was this plane still in service for Japan Air Lines during this video? Or was this airline still in existence at the time of this recording(1987)? A nice takeoff video. That is such a remarkable aircraft for its age!
Air Jamaica used to fly them in the 70ties. i remember watching them as a kid at the waving point from KIN airport. They were so loud and i got a bit afraid. But it was fascinating when the engines started by "start cart" and the famous howl would occur. These days will be missed.
Cl4rendon and they were beautiful inside and out in that orange color scheme. I flew on one of them out of JFK in ‘73. I remember to this day the music playing when we boarded was (a censored version of) “The Theme from Shaft”). I remember it felt like the walk to the lavs in the -8 fuselage was about a mile long lol. And the “stewardesses” were absolutely stunning. When we came back to JFK I remember there was a gorgeous BOAC VC-10 at the gate next to us. The whole experience just seemed magical.
That is sad news. They were good, solid and safe planes. I had hoped that they would have fulfilled their legacy as a major courier. Perhaps they have done just that....Thanks for the information.
I’m told the DC-8-62 was the plane that CIA agent Tony Mendez and six of the diplomats from the U.S. embassy in Tehran boarded to escape to Switzerland during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. However in the movie Argo, they were depicted escaping in a Boeing 747.
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