airline’s -11 series aircraft were modi ed to the
-12 standard. An engine upgrade led to some
of these aircraft being redesignated -21 and
then for the same reason later -31.FREIGHTER DEVELOPMENT
Cargo was always a useful source of additional
revenue for airlines and was generally carried
on an ad-hoc basis in the belly when there was
space available after the baggage had been
loaded. However, with increasing passenger
loads, the surplus space became very limited,
whilst at the same time cargo volumes were
also rapidly increasing. United turned to
Douglas again, perhaps remembering that
when the DC-8 had been launched, Donald
Douglas Snr had spoken of the future including
jet freighters, something that surprised his
audience at the time. The freighter version
that emerged was marketed as the DC-8F Jet
Trader (designated a DC-8-33).
Initially, United was the only customer for
the pure freighter, placing an order for 15
aircraft, with the rst of them being delivered
in 1964. They were used to launch freighter
services from Chicago, Los Angeles, San
Francisco to New York (more destinations werelater added), making United the rst airline
in the US to offer non-stop transcontinental
all-cargo services. It proved very popular –
so much so that United also acquired 11 of
the -32 model, eight of them from Pan Am,
two from SAS and one from Braniff. These
passenger aircraft were converted to freighters
and given the -33 designation.
One of these aircraft, N8207U, never
received the house colours and was nicknamed
the ‘White Whale’. It was based at Denver and
used as a crew trainer.
The airline also received six DC-8-52s.
The variant having an improved version of
the engine. A further engine upgrade was
the reason for four freighters it bought being
classed as DC-8-54Fs.
By 1962, worldwide passenger growth had
increased signi cantly, and it was apparent
that the standard con gurations of the United
eet couldn’t keep up. Douglas had an ace up
its sleeve though. Because of the DC-8’s high
ground clearance, it was possible to extend
the fuselage length by a massive 37ft (11.3m),
thus giving a signi cantly increased passenger
capacity.
The basic airframe was strengthenedand the need for more powerful engines was
obviated by weight-saving improvements
throughout the airframe, including the
reduction of fuel capacity to offset the
increased weight. It was launched as the DC-
8-61 and the rst example, N8070U, ew for
the rst time in March 1966. Four months later
a second aircraft joined the programme.
Both had stripped interiors initially, but the
third example was completely tted out and
joined the test eet in September. Trials went
well and by September 1966 the certi cation
had been issued by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA). The series -61 offered
a faster climb as well as shorter landing and
take-off distances than its predecessors.
United did not receive its rst of the type
until 1968, for two reasons. McDonnell
Douglas (the companies merged in 1967)
stopped work on civil aircraft for a period to
concentrate on military ones to support efforts
in the Vietnam War, and the rst aircraft,
scheduled for delivery in early January of
1967, caught re during cleaning at the Santa
Monica plant. This delayed its handover for
more than a year.
The enlarged variant posed potentialhttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 43This photo: A United DC-8 making a smokie departure. Art Brett
Top: An estimated at 95,000 spectators witnessed
the DC-8’s maiden ight from Long Beach, California,
at 10.11am on May 30, 1958. On N8008D’s ight
deck were chief pilot ‘Heimie’ Heimerdinger,
co-pilot William Magruder, systems
operator Paul Patten, and ight
engineer Bob Rizer.
Key Collection42-46_jetliners_dc8-DC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 43 04/05/2018 12:02