altitudes. The only disadvantage was that
the radical design of the CFM was such
that the existing wing pylons and nacelles
had to be redesigned to accommodate the
new turbofan. The contract for this part of
the modi cation was awarded to Grumman
Aerospace and following the engine upgrade,
the designations for the ‘Super Sixty’ aircraft
were changed; thus the -60/61/62/63 series
became -70/71/72/73 respectively.
Cammacorp had signed an agreement
with McDonnell Douglas to provide full
engineering support and conversion work
and the rst aircraft (N8093U) arrived at
Cammacorp’s plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in
October 1980.
The retro t took longer than expected and
consequently the opportunity to exhibit the
aircraft at the Paris Air Show was lost, but
it was used for a while as a demonstrator
for the new engine. When the work was
complete in August 1981, it was designated
the DC-8-70, and was eventually returned to
airline use in July 1982.
Meanwhile in May 1982, N8092U
had been returned to service and was
immediately put onto the San Francisco-
Portland route. One year later, United was
averaging 16 hours a day from each of the re-
engined aircraft with reliability a fraction shortof 100%. Eventually 110 examples received
the new engines.
In the meantime, the US Government
decided to extend the date for Stage 2
compliance until January 1986 and for
Stage 3 to 2000, thus favouring the use of
the signi cantly cheaper Stage 2 compliant
hush kits. Diminishing fuel prices and the
increasing cost of engine conversion, which
had risen to $15m per aircraft, had made the
hush kit an attractive proposition for many
carriers, but others preferred the CFM-56.
One victim of the new regulations though,
was United’s cargo operation.
In October 1984, United decided to ground
its DC-8 freighters. Investment would be
needed to make them compliant with the
forthcoming noise regulations, however the
decision was taken not to re-engine them,
thus ending the airline’s all-freighter services.
The aircraft were later sold on to cargo
airlines.INTERIORS
In addition to the new powerplants, United
had also taken the opportunity to re-model
the interiors by adding doors to the overhead
luggage compartments, thus enclosing them
completely and generally giving a widebody-
look to the cabin. The combined interior andexterior modi cations enabled United to get
another ten years’ service from its aircraft,
but in 1989 the company’s management
determined that although they had served
the airline well, it was time to get them off the
books.
The entire DC-8 eet was sold to
Guinness Peat Aviation, then leased back for
several more years, so that the type could
continue to be used on the some of the
airline’s trunk routes. The nal United DC-8
service was operated by a -71 on October
31, 1991, appropriately enough between San
Francisco and Kona, Hawaii, thus ending a
relationship with the type that had lasted for
more than 30 years.
One example remains, DC-8-52 N8066U
was originally delivered to United in January- It is believed to have own more
than 18 million miles and carried over one
million passengers. It was retired in 1980
and placed in storage in Las Vegas, where it
remained until 1984. It was then own to Los
Angeles and later that year it was donated
to the California Science Center. The wings
were removed and it was taken by road
and reassembled at the museum. Initially it
was on display at ground level but later was
repainted in its original colours and mounted
on a pedestal in 2002.
46 Aviation News incorporating Jets June 2018United’s DC-8-71 N8072U at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in June 1986. Note the larger engines. Richard VandervordUnited Airlines DC-8-52 N8066U, preserved at the California Science Center.
AirTeamImages.com/TT42-46_jetliners_dc8-DC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 46 04/05/2018 12:03