VeeOne
May 14, 2011 at 6:43 pm

Final flights of the Douglas DC-8s

The Douglas DC8 is a true long-haul classic (FWIW in my opinion second to the 707). Some people absoluely love this classic aircraft. These photos were taken in the early 1980s just before the EU brought in new regulations for engine noise and pollution.

This short era would be the last time these classic jets would grace our airports without engine modifications. Many stretch-eights were converted to -73 series with big fan engines mostly for cargo operations. Not so many old 707s had hush-kits, sadly.

This EU law spelled the end for the first true generation of jet airliners in Europe.

Affretair Zimbabwe DC-8-50F at Gatwick

Air Canada DC-8-53F departing 28R at Heathrow

Air Canada DC-8-63F Cargo with BMA Shorts 360 in background Heathrow 10R

Air Canada DC-8-73F re-engined for Cargo use in European Airports landing at Heathrow 28R

Air Canada DC-8-63 lining up on 28R on final DC-8 pax flight from EGLL. These aging jets were retired or converted to -73F cargo aircraft.

Arista International Airlines DC-8-50 departing Gatwick for the USA.

Arrow Air DC-8-61 at Gatwick on scheduled service. They also used DC8-50, DC8-71 and DC-10.

Balair DC-8-61 landing on sub-charter for Air France at Heathrow’s Runway 10L. Air France crew strike caused the airline to wet-lease a strange bunch of airliners to fly its schedules.

Flying Tiger Line DC8-63F on scheduled cargo flight going heavy to 28L at Heathrow photo taken by PanAm base. Flying Tiger was a classic cargo airline and gained cargo schedules to Heathrow when it took over Seaboard World who operated DC8s and 747s to London.

Iberia DC8-63 in 1960s livery on finals for 28R at Heathrow. Heathrow in the early 1980s saw an interesting batch of almost to be retired long-haul airliners filling in for new fleets to be delivered. Some of the DC8-63 jets were painted in the new 1980s livery.

JAL Japan Airlines DC8-50 in 1970s livery landing on Heathrow’s 28R. One of the last DC-8 passenger services to EGLL after which all services were by 747 (and DC-10)

KLM DC8-63 in 1970s blue-top livery. Used while a new fleet of Airbus A310 were being built.

Pacific East Air DC8-63 landing at Gatwick on summer IT schedule.

Quebec Air DC8-63 landing at Gatwick – a great livery for the stretched-DC8 which was an awkward shape for most airline liveries.

SAS DC8-50 in 1980s livery lining up on 28R at Heathrow. SAS was awaiting MD-80 jets to be delivered and used every type of Douglas DC8 it had to fly European schedules.

SAS DC8-61 at V2 on 10R at Heathrow. This jet is still in 1960s classic livery and was used in the 1960s to fly routes to the USA.

Scanair DC8-63 in 1980s livery. Scanair livery followed that of parent company SAS.

Spantax DC8-61 departing Gatwick. Spantax was a Palma-based Spanish Inclusive Tour charter company using Douglas airliners (DC6, DC7, DC8/F, DC9, DC10) with the only non Douglas airliner the classic Convair CV990 smokey-joe.

Sterling Airlines DC8-61 landing at Stansted. Sterling had an all-SE210 fleet until the late 1970s when it used 727s and then this leased stretch eight.

TAAT Trans Arabian Air Transport Douglas DC8-50 at stansted

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By: Peter de Zeeuw - 20th January 2012 at 18:26

Nice photo Peter. I notice the C-118 and C-47 in background. Were these Belgian Air Force aeroplanes?

Good evening VeeOne,

Yes, the aircraft seen on the north side of Brussels airport were Belgian Air Force planes. That side still is the military part of the airport and is called Melsbroek, home of the transport aircraft of the Belgian Air Force (C-130 Hercules, Airbus A310/A340, Embraers 135/145 and some bizjets). The aircraft seen in the photo are C-47 Dakotas and Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars of which they had quite a few at the time.
This is one of the C-119Gs present that day:

Kind regards,

Peter

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By: VeeOne - 20th January 2012 at 16:35

Good evening,

>>Here is one more, this time EC-BXR, DC-8-21 of Air Spain. This colourful aircraft was seen at Brussels on March 25th, 1972.
Peter

Nice photo Peter. I notice the C-118 and C-47 in background. Were these Belgian Air Force aeroplanes?

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By: by738 - 19th January 2012 at 20:53

My first ever flight ( A sub chartered Britannia flight from Glasgow to Ibiza) on a Canafrica DC-8 – riddled with delays and always on the news.

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By: Peter de Zeeuw - 19th January 2012 at 16:16

Good afternoon,

I have done some homework, so here are a few scans (black and white negatives and colour slides) of DC8s, all taken at Schiphol. I hope you like them.

1. PH-DEB: DC-8-63, KLM. October 28th, 1967

2. CF-CPF: DC-8-43, Canadian Pacific. September 25th, 1968

3. N852F: DC-8-55, Overseas National. May 26th, 1969

4. YV-C-VIB: DC-8-63, Viasa. May 26th, 1969

5. CF-CPT: DC-8-55, CP Air. August 23rd, 1969

6. N4904C: DC-8-54, Capitol. August 23rd, 1969

7. N4910C: DC-8-63, Capitol. August 23rd, 1969

Kind regards,

Peter

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By: bazv - 4th June 2011 at 10:37

Lovely pics all…
When I first moved down south I had digs not too far from gatwick,one day I heard a noisy jet departing and thought it sounded lower/louder than usual – went outside for a dekko and there was a low DC8 with smoke pouring out of 3 engines LOL…

A little later I had the pleasure of a Swissair DC8 trip Gatwick – Harare…not many pax and the service was outstanding hic…I was pi55ed as a parrot by the time we got there 😀

rgds baz

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By: TRIDENT MAN - 31st May 2011 at 19:34

Taken at Manchester in 2009….

Another the year before…

One from 1977…KLM.

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By: HP81 - 31st May 2011 at 19:06

PeeDee you’re quite right, the JT3D makes a nice noise.
Here are some from Stansted around 1988.

The last DC8 built SE-DBL

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By: PeeDee - 30th May 2011 at 21:33

They were re-engined with the CFM56, similar to the 737-300/400 engine. I think they look really good with the big engines.

I slightly agree, well, they don’t look ugly for sure.

But, they won’t sound anything like as good 🙂

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By: HP81 - 30th May 2011 at 21:23

They were re-engined with the CFM56, similar to the 737-300/400 engine. I think they look really good with the big engines.

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By: by738 - 30th May 2011 at 20:41

The re-engined ones look odd ! What type of engines were the re-engined with ? Dont look like DC-10, Tristar or 747 types

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By: Peter de Zeeuw - 30th May 2011 at 20:13

Peter de Zeeuw…the quality of your scans continues to amaze me.
Keep ’em comin!

Good evening,

I am glad you like them, PeeDee.
Longshot, that is an interesting photograph of Le Bourget, very nice.

Here is one more, this time EC-BXR, DC-8-21 of Air Spain. This colourful aircraft was seen at Brussels on March 25th, 1972.

Kind regards,

Peter

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By: PeeDee - 29th May 2011 at 21:14

Peter de Zeeuw…the quality of your scans continues to amaze me.
VeeOne……your library of “My” favourites and my era, continues to amaze me.

Keep ’em comin!

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By: keithnewsome - 29th May 2011 at 20:50

This one, N441J at Opa Locka, last week looks ready to carry on for a while ??

Keith.

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By: waghorn41 - 29th May 2011 at 20:26

OK, not final flights but DC8’s 😀
World Airways, IATA, Martinair, EFS Bahamas, Thai, Flying Tigers, JAL Cargo, Garuda, Alitalia Cargo.

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By: waghorn41 - 29th May 2011 at 19:51

I’ll dig out my pics of DC8’s from Hong Kong in the 70’s. Bit of useless info – my father was PR Officer for Alitalia when they took delivery of the ‘new’ DC8, wish I knew what happened to the publicity photos he had, lovely images.