Monday, September 29, 2014

Douglas DC-8 (updated)



Len Martin, Airliners of the World, Arco Publishing 1966
The competition; Boeing 707
The DC-8 first flew on May 30 1958, nearly four years after Boeing introduced the 707, yet Douglas had firm orders for 118 of the untried aircraft in its books on that date. Such was the confidence of the air travel industry in Douglas-built product. Douglas was basically the only game in town from the introduction of the DC-2 in 1933 and 1946, when Lockheed introduced the Constellation. At the start of WW-2 the air transport roster read like this; Boeing 8%, Lockheed 9%, Douglas 83%. Small wonder airlines were willing to wait for aircraft from the Douglas company.
 556 examples were built before production ended in 1972, superseded by the new wide body jets.


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3 comments:

  1. AceOctober 3, 2014 at 1:24 PM

    The first shot (the airborne jet) is a Boeing, either a 707 or a 720. The giveaways are the 'spike' at the top of the tail and the extra piping running along the bottom or the engines. But it's a great shot.

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  2. Mister GOctober 3, 2014 at 2:58 PM

    Thanks, interesting. I'll look in the book again!

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  3. Mister GOctober 13, 2014 at 11:10 PM

    Absolutely correct. I'll blame the layout of the book for my mistake :-)

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