At the start of the
1950's Douglas Aircraft Company held a
commanding position in the world airliner market with the DC-3,
DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7 series of airliners. Although the DH Comet
had flown in 1949 the subsequent series of accidents with that
aircraft gave Douglas reason to take a conservative approach to
developing a jet airliner.
Douglas submitted a
bid for the USAF jet tanker project but this
was won in 1954 by the Boeing 707 (KC-135). From that
point,
Douglas was always playing catch-up. The DC-8 was officially
launched in 1955 and first flew in 1959 but never achieved the
sales success of its rival.
Two fuselage lengths
were eventually produced, the standard
length and the "Super DC-8's" introduced in 1965. The DC-8 was
able to be stretched further than the 707 due to its greater wing
sweep and the longest DC-8 seated 262 passengers, the greatest
capacity airliner until the introduction of the 747.
The DC-8 holds the distinction
of being the first civilian jet to
break the sound barrier when an example achieved Mach 1.012 in
a controlled dive in 1961.
556 examples were built,
about half the number of the rival 707,
but they had a greater service retention rate, largely due to their
success in the converted freighter market.
This CD contains
two flight manuals for the Douglas DC-8. The CD
has been scanned from the original flight manuals and retains any
colour pages.
This CD contains:
1. Manufacturer's Systems
Operation Manual for the Douglas DC-8
revised to Feb 69, over 1500 pages. This manual is customised
for three specific aircraft operated by Universal Airlines,
being
two short-fuselage DC-8-55CF aircraft and one long-fuselage
DC-8-61CF aircraft.
2. United Airlines Flight
Manual for the DC-8, revised to 21-8-68 with
642 pages. This manual covers both the short-fuselage
and the
long-fuselage -61 series aircraft.
| CD TITLE | DC8 |
| PRICE | US$19.95 plus postage |
| POSTAGE AND ORDERING DETAILS |