CLASSIC JETLINERS SPECIAL

U

nited Airlines’ love affair with the

ground-breaking Douglas DC-8

jetliner can be traced back to before

the type had even  own. The four-

engines, single-aisle transport made its maiden

 ight on May 30, 1958, along with Delta Air

Lines, United was one of two launch customers

for the type and the company received its  rst

example in June 3, 1959. This was swiftly

followed by a further  ve DC-8 deliveries,

which were used for training purposes by

United during the next three months.

In the meantime, United had produced

what it called a Jetarama, in effect a travelling

showcase that included mock-ups of the DC-

8’s interior and the engines. The idea was to

get the public used to what, at that time, was

the relatively new concept of jet travel.

In September 18, 1959, the  rst United

DC-8 scheduled  ight from San Francisco

to New York took place. Further deliveries

followed rapidly and by the end of 1960, United

had 16 of the new jetliners in its  eet, which

were being used widely across the network.

The DC-8 suffered a few teething troubles

during the early days of entering service.

Initially, it was unable to meet the performance

and range guarantees offered by Douglas,

which gave Boeing a competitive edge on sales

with its 707. The  rst 18 DC-8s were designated

as -11s and  tted with Pratt & Whitney JT3C-6

engines. This powerplant required a water-

methanol mixture injection for the engines to be

cool enough for them to perform satisfactorily

on take-off. However, to feed the somewhat

costly and complicated system, approximately

5,000 imp gals (22,730 lit) of water were

required on every take-off. This combination

caused a considerable amount of smoke to be

emitted from the exhausts, a well-remembered

phenomenon of the time.

As DC-8 deliveries continued, improvements

were made to both airframe and engine. The

wings were  tted with leading-edge wing

slats and the wing-tips were extended. The

maximum take-off weight was increased and

perhaps more importantly, in the early 1960s,

a newer version of the JT3C-6 engine was

introduced, designated JT4A-9. These units

didn’t require the water-methanol injection. The

DC-8

UNITED’S

DO-IT-ALL

JETLINER

For more than 30 years the DC-8

was an important part of the United

Airlines fl eet, as Barry Lloyd explains.

42 Aviation News incorporating Jets June 2018

42-46_jetliners_dc8-DC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 42 04/05/2018 12:03