age. The logo featured CPA letters in a white
circle above the stylized goose, over a red
chevron on the tail. Double red cheatlines
with a white line between wrapped around
the nose, separating the white upper
fuselage and the bare metal bottom. The
titles remained unchanged. On the first
livery, no flag was worn, then the Canadian
Red Ensign was added on the lower aft
fuselage. In 1965, a Canadian maple leaf
flag was adopted and soon doubled in size.
In the late 1960s, block capital titles were
briefly worn on some aircraft.CP AIR
Canadian Pacific underwent a complete
rebranding, becoming CP Air, in late 1968.
Lippincott & Margulies of New York produced
the new corporate design. The livery was
unveiled with the delivery of the first Boeing
737-200 on October 21, 1968. The Canadian
Pacific Railways corporate logo of a red
forward pointing triangle on a white semi-
circle now adorned the tail. The livery was
a flamboyant bright orange, red, bare metal
and black. The upper fuselage and tail
were orange, separated from the bare metal
underside by a wide red cheatline that angled
down from above the cockpit to the aft lower
fuselage. Large, bold, black CP Air titles
adorned the nose. The DC-8s and a single
DC-3 were soon repainted in the new livery.CP used the callsign ‘Empress’ and the
aircraft each wore unique a name starting
with this word. The names of the CP
DC-8s were changed at some point onmost aircraft. The DC-8-43s initially had
major Canadian city names. These were
later altered to international destinations
for the -43s and the rest of the fleet as
they were brought online. The namesof the DC-8-63s were later amended to
Canadian Provinces.
CP Air’s DC-8 fleet was 11 strong in
1971 and the network continued to grow
with Tel Aviv added via Rome, Athens and
Amsterdam. Acapulco and Guadalajara
were served from Vancouver and Toronto.
New Boeing 727-17s and the 737-200s took
over the domestic routes, allowing the DC-8s
to increase overseas frequencies.
A DC-8 was damaged on January 29,
1971 when Trans Australia Airlines’ (TAA)
Boeing 727-76 VH-TJA, on flight TN592 from
Sydney to Perth, struck the top of the tail of
DC-8-63 CF-CPQ while taking off at night.
The DC-8 had not cleared the runway after
landing, the pilots misheard the controller,
back-taxiing on the runway rather than
exiting. The top half of the fin was sliced off
and the TAA 727 managed to land safely with
a gashed lower fuselage. There were no
injuries and both aircraft were repaired.
Papeete in French Polynesia and Puerto
Vallarta in Mexico were new routes in 1973.
The Boeing 747-200 was introduced in 1973,
eclipsing the Super DC-8-63 as CP’s largest
type, initially sharing the Vancouver-Tokyo-
Hong Kong route.
The following year, the airline carried
2,284,000 passengers, on four 747s, 12
DC-8s, four 727-100s and seven 737-200s.
The sole DC-8-55 was reconfigured to 171
economy seats for charters in 1975. The
next year, Montreal hosted the Summer24 Aviation News incorporating Jets August 2018SUPERSONIC DC-8
Before it was delivered to Canadian Pacific
Airlines, DC-8-43 CF-CPG (c/n 45623/130),
wearing the temporary test registration N9604Z,
became the world’s first supersonic airliner. It
surpassed the speed of sound during a Douglas
flight test over Edwards AFB on August 21,- The flight confirmed performance data on
aerodynamic wing improvements on the new
4% leading edge. It achieved Mach 1.012 during
a shallow dive at 41,088ft from 52,090ft, which
was also an altitude record for a commercial jet
airliner at the time. To commemorate the event,
a small plaque was attached to a bulkhead in
CF-CPG. It was delivered to Canadian Pacific on
November 15, 1961 as the Empress of Montreal.
It accumulated nearly 19 years of service
with CP; 70,567 hours during 24,268 flights,
travelling about 39 million miles. An unsuccessful
preservation effort by CP Air employees was
mounted when it was retired. It was scrapped at
Opa Locka, Florida in May 1981.
DC-8-63 C-FCPL Empress of Manitoba was CP Air’s final DC-8 and was acquired from Eastern
Airlines. via Tom KimOne of six DC-8-43s operated by CP Air. Paul Ritchie via Tom Kim20-25_cp_airDC.mfDC.mfDC.mfDC.mf.indd 24 05/07/2018 15:02