Douglas DC-8 - the first Douglas jet airliner 

Another masterpiece from the best reviewer, keep it up my friend

1:40 absolutely one of your best scripts, yet. Well put and properly descriptive..that being said overall this video is fantastic. Thanks for a another great video.

That was thoroughly enjoyable. I was born in Toronto in 1960. Our home was 5 miles (8 kms) from Toronto International Airport. The flight path was directly over our house. I mean, absolutely 90 degrees vertical overhead at about 1,500 feet (460 M) On busy days, we could see five planes in the air; one overhead, two approaching our house and two leaving. They flew in either direction, but most often East to West. By far, the DC-8 was the most common plane. But they were really loud. When the DC-8 Stretch came out, people started complaining to the airport. The dishes were rattling off the shelves, dogs would howl, children would cry. Not joking. A few dozen of those over your head, every day, you've had enough. I remember one night when I was a small child. Must've been a serious emergency landing. It was the middle of the night, 3 AM-ish when I woke up hearing a jet approaching. It got louder and louder and LOUDER AND FUCKING LOUDER , my parents came rushing into my bedroom and the plane passed over the engines screaming in a way we'd never heard. Must've been less than a hundred feet over hour house, in the middle of the night. To say the house shook is a fucking understatement. Mom, my brother and I were crying and furious until my Dad said "Stop crying! Imagine what those people on that airplane are going through!" Your video brought back a childhood memory I had almost totally forgotten.

In 1969 my father’s Naval Career stationed him at Naval Air Station Guam. We flew over in a Pan Am Boeing 707, and back to the States in 1971 in a Douglas DC 8, flown by a contractor service. It was the only time I ever flew on either of these planes. But I was 14 and 16 at the time and impressed by both.

My first job after high school was working for Douglas on DC8s. My job was crawling inside the wings and seal the fuel tanks.

One of my family worked for Delta Airlines in the 70s and 80s, and Delta had quite a few DC-8's for a long time, very fun airplane to fly in when I was little. I remember how flexible they were, the wings would flap like a bird and the engines would swing from side to side in turbulent air, but it was a smooth ride in the cabin.

9:20 DC-8, which my dad worked on and in the background C-124 which his dad helped build. My life took a different path. And the only Douglas aircraft I've flown in are the 9, 10 and C118.

What a great video. This answers many questions I hadn't bothered to ask since seeing these types flying over London when I lived there as a 10 year old. ( now 65) I hadn't realised DC8 was as popular as 707. Now I need to find out about the Convairs. Many thanks.

I flew the DC9 10/32 for 7 glorious years, I loved that jet and when I finally transferred to the B737-300/400/500 I couldn’t believe how agricultural the Boeing was compared to the slick DC9. Luckily I only had to endure 3 years on the 737 before we re-equipped with Airbus A321/320/319 and later the A330-200 which is my personal aircraft of choice for a working pilot, much later I was offered a chance to fly the great B747-400 that I fly now. I would have loved the chance to fly the DC8 and the DC10 as I believe them to be superior to their contemporaries and I would have loved the opportunity to have operated them.

Yes, Another Marathon for McDonald Douglas Company. Thanks For A Great Job Skyships.

Fine video. Very informative and lively. I flew on one of the final commercial propeller flights in 1964, and also flew on jets during that same trip. I was lucky to be able to compare the two, because jet travel is SO much quieter inside the cabin. I immediately saw why they called them "Whisper Jets."

I worked with a refugee from Vietnam who was a commercial pilot with the Vietnam Airlines of the south, when there was a south Vietnam. He told me that to hike the DC8 was the best and most beautiful aircraft due, among other things,to its beautiful fuselage.

Well done video. I flew the 54, 55, 61, 62, 63, 71, and 73 a total of 17 years. When it was converted to the 70 series it became a great airplane. The CFM engines and the PACKs fixed the biggest problems. I got off of it and was very happy to say I got off before I hit a nacelle or a tail skid. It was a challenging airplane to fly well.

The Stretch Eight. Flew it from Atlanta and Miami and back many times. My brother worked for Delta and said when they puy the new engines on they had problems with the brakes overheating, even with the engines at idle. Thet taxied out with just one engine and started the other three just before takeoff.

My First trip from CLT to JFK... Delta DC8..... it was so nice and food awe super... never forget it...

Excellent presentation!!!

I just wanted to say I really enjoy your presentation style and how comprehensive you are with your videos. Thank you!

Great video once again sky.keep up the good work and thank you

Caravelle wasn't designed to compete with the Comet. It was intermediate range with the nose section produced by de Havilland, coming off the Comet 4 production line.

hello thanks for the memories . I work the DC-8 back in 1983 , Flying Tiger cargo Airline, out of ATL . The airplanes became part of UPS fleet , very elegant airplane. saludos.

The Hawaii Five O intro showed the DC 8 in the fish eye lenses

Skyships, you did it again with this magistral video! The DC-8 is a piece of aviation history and it was, perhaps sadly, Douglas' crowning achievement. After that, it was all downhill with the DC-10 of sinister reputation and the very underwhelming DC-9, MD-11 and MD-80. Yet it begs a question: what if Airbus didn't exist? Antitrust laws would presumably have prevented Boeing from taking over Mc Donnell-Douglas so maybe the company would have ultimately managed to get back on track and produce another great airliner for the 21st century?

I would like to see a vid on the boeing 720. this plane is totally overlooked and served an important purpose. allowed jet service to many airports early on . also put a nail in the convair 880,s coffin. served till the 727 was introduced as America,s short haul jet.

I loved the video, Sky!! I really wish there were more video examples of this aircraft in action, on the internet. But there are a really limited selection of DC-8 footage. There are lots of pictures, but few videos.

In my humble opinion, the DC 8 and the Comet were the most beautiful jet airliners of all time💜💜💜

That channel is very amazing.

1968, DEC 22...FLEW ON A STRETCH EIGHT FROM TRAVIS AFB TO ANCHORAGE ALASKA HEADED FOR THAILAND. FILLED WITH GIs GOING TO THAILAND. SAT IN THE LASTVSEATS IN THE BACK. IT WAS UN-NERVING SEEING THE FUSELAGE WIGGLING LIKE A SNAKE WHEN WE HIT ROUGH AIR. GOOD AIRCRAFT, WATCHING THE MOVEMENT WAS SCARY

excellent piece of work! Thank you!

Can you do videos about airlines? For example, the oldest in the world, KLM, the first in American continent, Avianca (by few months from KLM), the most luxurious, the biggest, the newest, etc. Love your channel 👌

I hadn't realized that the DC-8 had broken the sound barrier I thought just the Convair CV-880/990 had. I am looking forward to your video on that aircraft whenever it may come!

Great video. This video proves that engines are vital to the longevity of an aircraft. Today we have the GE90/GEnx/GE9x. Tomorrow we will have an improved variant of GTF.

The longevity & average hours per airframe (several with well over 100000 hrs) marks the DC 8 as the greatest of all first generation jetliners. The numbers don't lie!

Awesome. Douglas, finally!

Good video. 7:45 Didn't know that the Bose headsets were that old!

While related, 707's and KC-135's are two very different aircraft. While the military may have a 707 or two lying around they primarily use KC-135's, not 707's.

Произношение подтянулось! Улет 5!

I really regret the loss of McDonnell Douglas as a company. Having another major jetliner manufacture would have spurred more innovation due to the competition, especially between to US companies. Sure Boeing and Airbus are introducing innovations but I bet there would be more and faster new ideas if the jet makers wasn't a duopoly.

crazy engine nozzles!

Excellent video once again! Any chance for one on ATR's?

world wars brought /developped and tested many technologies

Actually, Boeing initially lost the USAF air tanker programme to Lockheed and its L-193 'Constellation II' offering (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-193) in 1955. Since the L-193 was not to be ready until a few years after Boeing's air tanker offering (based on the extant 367-80), the USAF ordered 4 Boeing tankers as an interim measure. This quickly turned into an order for 16, and then ballooned into an order for 250 of what had become the KC-135. Shortly thereafter, the USAF cancelled the L-193, and ended up buying a total of 880 variants of Boeing's KC/RC/EC/C-135s. Early in my own airline career, I flew the DC-8 for about a year and a half. I thus have a total of 450 hours in the DC-8, spread out over a mix of the DC-8-73F, the -71F and the -63F. By the time I flew it, the Douglas design was very long in the tooth, despite the new CFM-56-22 engines. The fuselage had been stretched so much, and the MAUW increased likewise (to 355,000 lb) that, during a max weight take-off, the minimum zero-flap manoeuvring speed was some 5 kts faster than the maximum flap extended speed. This meant you had to start retracting the last notch of flaps at about 240 KIAS, and hold the speed below 247 KIAS until the flaps were fully retracted, and then keep the angle of bank to no more than 5º until you had thereafter accelerated to 252 KIAS. Only then could you bank the aircraft up to 30º. During a departure that called for early turns at low level to keep inside a ring of hills whilst you climbed (for example), the various aircraft manoeuvring limitations combined to focus the attention and to concentrate the mind marvellously, and to produce inordinate amounts of stress. Especially on a dark and dirty night, when you entered cloud almost immediately after lift-off, and had to do all of this in the dark, and on instruments.

Ha, I didn't expect to see Elvis in this video.

The engines were built by a separate company from the aircraft company.

Wondering if DC-8-73 re-engined with 4x PW-1724G & latest avionics🛫🤓

13:12 is that a keg coming out the wheel well?

I think the Red Bull RB19 might be as fast as that Red Bull DC-6. 🤣

13:14 Are those legs coming out of a taxiing plane's belly?

9,500 hours of DC-8 time in my logbook. Flew the -54.-55,-61,-62,-63,-71& the mighty -73 around the world. Almost all are gone now. Lots of great memories. You did not get a DC-8 type rating, you got a search warrant. Searching for all of the different locations that Douglas put the switches and gauges and controls according to the desires of the particular airline that originally ordered the aircraft.

I always found the DC-8's to be a bit more attractive than the 707's

I loved flying the DC8. I flew many different models. 55, 61, 62, 63 and the 73. The 62's I flew were ex MGM Grand and had APU's. The 63 was the model I flew the most. Flew many types in my 38 year career but will always have fond memories of the DC8.

Freakin best review I’ve ever heard about the dc-8. Speaker is more articulate than most American born hosts I’ve ever heard. And English is obviously not his first language. Amazing narration my brother. Fantastic. Keep’m coming.

The Douglas DC-8 was an awesome piece of engineering which had a long service life. She was the first aircraft I worked on and I've had the pleasure of flying in her cockpit. There were very few combi aircraft but quite a few DC-8 Combi's and they ran around the world never letting their customers down.

In the early 1990's I loaded a lot of packages on UPS DC-8's that started off as airliners and were converted to freighters. They held 18 air containers and pushing that last short one all the way to the back of the cabin was a long shove. They had four belly compartments. I spent some quality time loading and unloading those, too. They required a tail stand on the rear because those fuselages were so long. The last container position was so far aft of the main gear that too much weight in back would lift the nose off the ground. Weight and balance on aircraft is always important, but the DC-8's seemed a lot more sensitive than some other planes we loaded. It was fun to stand on the ramp when they started the engines. They did not have APUs, so they needed big huffer carts to get the engines turning. Once the fuel lit off you could feel the rumble in your chest. I got to marshall them in to their parking spots on a lot of cold early mornings. It's fun to wave a couple of flashlights at a plane that big.

I was first an FE on the DC-8. I flew for Fine Air. Great bird and very fast workhorse!

My Favorite 4 engine plane. Also when Douglas was Douglas.

I was 5 years old in 1958. My dad took us to watch the maiden flight of the DC 8. Will never forget it.

As always, thank you, Sky! The most original and the most informative of RU-vid.

In 1973, at age 16, my first time in an airplane was a United DC-8 from Denver to N.Y. It was a thrill in every way; I wish I could fly in one again.

I remember in 1969 living near O'HARE seeing a delta stretch 8 or series 63 .. it was so beautiful landing and so low over our house

And Xenu used them to ship people to Teegeeack for mass murder by atomic bomb.

There was no business class until the early 80's when Qantas instituted it. The 707 and DC-8 had first and coach/tourist configurations

What a wild time for airliner marketing. The 707 did a barrel roll and the DC-8 broke the sound barrier!

Great video. It takes me back to my old A&P days. I worked on all the Boeing commercial jets (of the time) and all the Douglas jets too. The DC8-73 and 747's were my favorites.

Flew on many stretched Delta DC-8's. Loved them. They looked awesome on the ramp as well.

I flew on a DC-8 twice as a child. Once to Copenhagen, Stopped in Greenland for fuel. And to Washington Dc. Good video!

Always loved the look of that bird :)

As a former engineer of SNECMA (now SAFRAN) I can add that it was the DC8 reengined program with the CFM56 engines (CFM is a joint venture between Snecma and GE launched in 1974) which saved the CFM56 from cancellation in 1979 with the first orders from United, Delta and Flying Tigers if I remember correctly. Thanks to this first order CFM flourished and has now equipped more that 9000 BOEING 737 aircraft, 4500 Airbus A320 series aircraft, about 500 reengined KC135 refueling aircraft, 250 Airbus A340 .... Not forgetting the 110 DC8 which were reengined at the beginning!!

Another amazing video. Can you make a video on the history Douglas Conpany just like you did on Boeing and Airbus.

I flew on one of these in the 1990's on United with the older style engines. The plane was already showing it's age then.

13:14 someone flew for free! A bit chilly in there tho!

was a great source of comfort when the non-smoking sign went off -- and everyone would light up and relax !!!!

DC8 design was stolen from the ancient Lord Xenu fleet starships from the galaxy nubenon

Very good choice of aircraft. In the UK many were "spotted" as B707. BOAC then BA became big Boeing fans. Thank you for educating us on how successful the DC-8 was. Boeing had the advantage of Defence Budget money which was illegal under "anti-trust" legislation, as uncompetitive. Strange as Boeing tried to complain about DHC/Shorts despite the irony. Thanks again for the education.

*Smoking, Drinking and beautiful Stewardesses* Those were the days 😌

Your videos are so well researched lol. Great video as always, keep em coming.

15:18 the Air New Zealand DC-8 52 line number 328 was registered as ZK-NZD delivered in 1968 and was converted to a freighter in 1981. I started an apprenticeship as an AME with Air NZ in 1980 and remember working on NZD right up until it left the fleet in the very late 80's

I flew on the DC 8 several times in the 1970's. I've always found it more comforting to know there are 4 engines out there on the wings and not just 2 even though I acknowledge engines of today are far more reliable (ETOPS). Probably the old Irish joke as to how long it will take to get to the destination as engines fail one by one has something to do with it. :)

The three legends of America 707 dc8 and 880 plz do 880 soon

Die Deutschen haben die Düsentriebwerke erfunden! Die Amis waren zu langsam, wie bei vielem in der Technik. Alles abgekupfert. Aber ein schönes Flugzeug war die DC 8 schon.

Great video! Btw, the DC-8 was one of the few planes that could operate reverse thrust inflight :)

1:27 nice to see Air Chathams making an appearance in one of your videos!

Ah. The Douglas DC-8! I remember when I was a kid, in the early 90s. We knew someone who worked for Air Canada! He took us inside an Air Canada Cargo Douglas DC-8! Got to see the cockpit too! I could not remember what aircraft it was later on until doing a small bit of research and asking the man who showed us the plane, clearly it was a Douglas DC-8 series converted into a freighter! Wow! That's how I can get as close to the Boeing 707/720!!! But still... It was an amazing experience! 😊

Those people were smart to balance fleets between two contractors. If anything happened only half their fleet would be grounded.

This video was very informative. As always, well done!

Back in the seventies i flew on a charter DC-8-6 of Air Bahama between Luxembourg and Nassau with a stop for fuel in Shannon. Although it was a cheap chartered flight, I was offered tons of games to play with (I was 7), and the staff was very friendly. Thank you for your great videos.

Knew one of the head designers for the CFM-56 engines who still was cursing it 30 years later.

If anyone else was wondering, it's the DC-8 illustrated in the children's book 'Are you my mother' when the bird thinks a plane is it's mother.

My first airline flight was on an Air Canada DC-8-61 from Edmonton to Montreal in 1972. Air Canada called it a "DC-8L" I thought it was huge and loud. Passengers boarded from the tarmac and the air was blue with cigarette smoke throughout the flight. The Super 61 had a weird proportion to my eye, just a bit too long.

Very little info on the brand new Dc8 owned by Air NewZealand back in the 60s that crashed whilst on a training flight on take off all crew on board died. Apparently it was a malfunction and Completely destroying the airframe. It was quickly replaced by Douglas

fun fact : this is the first supersonic plane.the dc-8 was released before the concorde.dc-8 top speed is mach 1 but its was operated in mach 0.82.

L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, claims "Space Tyrants" captured beings, boxed them up and put them in "Space Planes," similar to the DC-8, flew over volcanoes, and dumped them in! 😅

That slightly drooping nose always makes me think of a hound dog. I grew up in the '60s and '70s, and the disappearance of these classic transports has been kind of sad. Thanks for a great video!

There were four first-generation intercontinental jetliners, the 707, the DC-8, the British VC-10 and the Soviet IL-62, the first genuinely world-class Soviet airliner. Convair made two shorter-range transcontinental jetliners about the same time, the 880 and the 990. These were smaller and carried fewer passengers, more comparable to the DC-6 than anything else except for being jets and the resulting increase in speed.

Great video thanks! Saw a DC8 today 12 Nov 19 at BHX airport. It belongs to Samaritan Purse.

My first plastic model as a child. . . it looked like the stuff dreams were made of.

I used to fly on the Swissair DC-8 a lot in the late 70’s on the Dubai to Geneva route with a ground stop in Dhahran. Great aircraft and memories.

Back when flying was comfortable

12:55 I get it that the black outlines on the map depict the four _Air Route Traffic Control Centers_ (ARTCC) tasked with handling the flight indicated, but placing dots indicating the supposed location of each city was completely unnecessary. While the ARTCC outlines are reasonably accurate, the *Kansas City* and *Salt Lake City* dot locations are way off.

I flew on a KLM DC-8 from Toronto to Amsterdam, August 1970. It was very noisy. When we were over Ireland, two of the engines were reversed to reduce altitude. The plane was shaking pretty bad ,but they said this was normal. I later learned that this was a dangerous thing to do.

Excellent video again!!!!