Port Columbus, Ohio. The DC-8’s No.4 (outer
starboard) engine struck the Constellation,
which then broke into three sections and
crashed. The DC-8 continued for another
22 miles (13.5km) before crashing onto a
residential area of Brooklyn. All on board both
aircraft – 128 souls – lost their lives, along with
ve people on the ground in Brooklyn.CHANGING TIMES
The last DC-8 was delivered to United in
1972, but despite increasing fuel costs, the
707s and DC-8s were still the backbone ofthe US carriers’ eets. The widebodies were
already in service with Pan Am, but United
was in no hurry to give up its narrowbodies.
Indeed, when American Airlines took the
decision to retire all of its 707s by 1981 – a
choice that took the industry by surprise- many other trunk carriers soon followed
suit, but not United. The long-haul capability
and seating con guration of its stretched
DC-8s suited its routes well and there was no
feasible alternative at the time.
But a shadow was beginning to appear
over the industry. Rumours were circulating
that aircraft noise limitations were to be
introduced. As long ago as 1977, the issue
of noise had raised its head and rules were
brought in by the FAA that meant all aircraft
weighing more than 75,000lb (34,000kg)
would have to meet what were being called
Stage 3 regulations by January 1985. It
should be remembered that at this time, even
new aircraft being delivered such as Boeing
747s, did not meet the Stage 3 specs, let
alone the older types.
Although McDonnell Douglas had not
ignored noise issues, it had not yet settled on
a suitable replacement engine when the new
limitations were rst released. With this in
mind, a group of former McDonnell Douglas
employees set up a new company called
Cammacorp in 1977. They agreed a deal
whereby the CFM-56 engine, the product
of a development co-operation between
General Electric of the US and SNECMA of
France could be offered, with the intention of
providing an alternative to the JT8 series of
engines tted to the DC-8s.
However, the CFM-56 was not well
received initially and the consortium was just
two weeks away from being dissolved, when
in April 1979, several of the US trunk carriers
announced their decision to re-engine their
DC-8s with it. Delta had been the rst airline
to evaluate the CFM-56, but it was United that
placed an order to upgrade its 29 Series 61s
with the CFM engine in March 1979.
The new powerplant offered signi cant
fuel savings and range, improved take-
off performance and higher cruisinghttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 45Short-fuselage DC-8, N8008U, in United’s ‘rainbow’ livery, which was used in the 1970s and 1980s. Bob O’Brien‘Super DC-8’ Series 61 N8073U. The fuselage length was increased on this variant by a massive 37ft compared with the ‘standard’ DC-8, giving a
signi cantly increased capacity. Bob O’Brien42-46_jetliners_dc8-DC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 45 04/05/2018 12:02