Douglas DC-8 is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company.
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15 Facts About Douglas DC-8
2.
FAA certification was achieved in August 1959 and the Douglas DC-8 entered service with Delta Air Lines on September 18.
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3.
Douglas DC-8 produced a succession of piston-engined aircraft through the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
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4.
When de Havilland flew the first jet airliner, the Comet, in 1949, Douglas DC-8 initially refrained from developing a jet airliner.
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5.
In 1952 Douglas DC-8 remained the most successful of the commercial aircraft manufacturers.
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6.
Douglas DC-8 secretly began jet transport project definition studies in mid-1952.
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7.
Douglas DC-8 remained lukewarm about the jet airliner project but believed that the Air Force tanker contract would go to two companies for two different aircraft, as several USAF transport contracts in the past had done.
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8.
Donald Douglas DC-8 was shocked by the rapidity of the decision which, he said, had been made before the competing companies even had time to complete their bids.
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9.
Douglas DC-8' previous thinking about the airliner market seemed to be coming true; the transition to turbine power looked likely to be to turboprops rather than turbojets.
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11.
The flight was to collect data on a new leading-edge design for the wing, and while doing so, the Douglas DC-8 became the first civilian jet – and the first jet airliner – to make a supersonic flight.
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12.
In 1962 Douglas DC-8 sales dropped to just 26, followed by 21 in 1963 and 14 in 1964; many were for the Jet Trader rather than the more prestigious passenger versions.
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13.
The Douglas DC-8 program had been in danger of closing with fewer than 300 aircraft sold, but the Super Sixties brought fresh life to it.
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14.
Definitive short-fuselage Douglas DC-8 came with the same engine that powered the vast majority of 707s, the JT3D.
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15.
The Douglas DC-8 has been involved in 46 hijackings with 2 fatalities.
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