aviation - the past, present and future of flight

services on the Montreal-Toronto-Windsor

and Vancouver-Calgary-Edmonton routes.

At that time, it had 9% of the Canadian

market, using seven DC-8s, six DC-6Bs and

three DC-3s. The following year it carried

1,036,341 passengers, up by 17%.

In response to demand for increased

jetliner capacity, Douglas announced

three new stretched versions of the DC-

8, known as the ‘Super Sixty Series’ on

April 4, 1965. The 60 series featured new

cockpit instrumentation introduced on

the DC-9. The DC-8-63, combined the

stretched fuselage of the DC-8-61 and

the 3ft (0.91m) longer wing of the DC-

8-62. Revised nacelles and pylons, and

leading-edge fuel tanks created capacity

for 900 gallons giving increased range.

The 63 was 36ft 8in (11.2m) longer than the

original DC-8, which was 187ft 4in (57.1m).

This allowed for a maximum capacity of

259 seats and increased underfloor freight

capacity by 80%. The 63 Series’ first flight

was April 10, 1967 and accounted for 20%

of all DC-8 sales.

NEW AIRCRAFT

Canadian Pacific ordered four DC-8-63(PF)s

from the newly merged McDonnell Douglas

Company in 1967. Called the Super 63

Spacemaster by the airline, they cost $11m

each. Its DC-8-63s were configured for 12

in first class and 191 in economy. In the

1970s, some DC-8-63s were configured with

only economy seating for 235 to fly charter

services to Europe.

Canadian Pacific’s first DC-8-63, CF-

CPO Empress of Honolulu was delivered

on January 17, 1968. The last of the four,

CF-CPS Empress of Hong Kong was handed

on June 16 that year and all were delivered

in the white livery. The increased capacity

was so successful that a fifth DC-8-63 was

bought second-hand from Eastern Airlines;

CF-CPL Empress of Athens was acquired

on September 26, 1972. It was the 14th and

final CP Air DC-8 in the fleet, and only wore

the orange livery. While awaiting the delivery

of the stretched DC-8s, Canadian Pacific wet

leased a Boeing 707-138B in October 1967. It

was lost in a crash at Vancouver on February

7, 1968, which resulted in two deaths.

The DC-8 inaugurated Canadian Pacific

Airlines’ new iconic ‘Goose’ livery for the jet

http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 23

In 1980, CP Air created an all-economy configured, cheap airfare concept called SkyBus/Aérobus. Tom Kim

DC-8-63 CF-CPQ Empress of Ontario at Prestwick in 1981. via Tom Kim

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