and launch customer DAL. and for a special somebody here, ANZ

Never a foolish question!

The DC-8 was a very cool plane and different enough from the 707 to be an interesting plane in anyone's hangar.
Like the 707 there were many variations to the basic DC series. The -71 was soooo long it had two rotations so as not to hit the tail. I remember sitting in the rear row of a long DC-8 and as it went down the runway for takeoff the whole cabin was swaying like a wet noodle. The tops of the seats were rocking back and forth.

Lou 



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Of course the Convair 880 was the fastest and coolest of all.

Peter, you're right the 880 & 990 were very cool looking planes.

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In-flight use of reverse thrust can mess up your day!  

Nothing like a go around and do it again!!!  

I was at KJFK one afternoon and saw the results of in-flight use of reverse thrust on a DC-8.

It seems the pilots of an Alitalia DC-8 found themselves a bit high on the approach to KJFK. They elected to use some reverse thrust to drop down a bit lower. The only trouble was they got the plane too slow and did not come out of reverse in time to slow the sink rate. I don't know what the FPM's were when they hit the ground, but the fuselage just aft of the trailing edge of the wing broke off and the two pieces slid down the runway connected only by a few cables and came to a stop on the left of the runway about half way down. I remember seeing in disbelief the vision in front of me as the rear section of the plane followed the front, zigzagging as it slowed. There was no fire and only minor injuries, but the first row of seats of the broken tail had people sitting, still strapped into their seats with their feet dangling in the air. It was quite a sight!

Here is the official report:

Date:      15 SEP 1970
Time:      13:21 EDT
Type:      McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62
Operator:      Alitalia
Registration:       I-DIWZ
C/n / msn:       46026/452
First flight:       1969
Engines:       4 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B
Crew:      Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 10
Passengers:      Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 146
Total:      Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 156
Airplane damage:       Written off
Airplane fate:       Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:      New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport, NY (JFK) (United States of America)
Phase:       Landing (LDG)
Nature:      International Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:      Roma-Fiumicino Airport (FCO) (FCO/LIRF), Italy
Destination airport:      New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport, NY (JFK) (JFK/KJFK), United States of America
Flightnumber:       618
Narrative:
Alitalia Flight 618 departed Rome at 10:22 local time for a non-stop flight to New York. The en route and descent were normal. After having descended to 6000 feet, the crew listed to the ATIS: "The seventeen hundred zulu weather Kennedy six hundred scattered measured ceiling eight hundred overcast four miles fog the winds are two one zero degrees at three and the altimeter three zero one five temperature seventy three expect ILS four right approach landing runway four right. Notice to Airmen glide slope out of service.". About this point in the flight, the first officer, at the request of the captain, took over the flight controls. He disengaged the autopilot and proceeded to comply with the various vectors provided by the approach controller. At 13:07 the controller instructed the flight to increase airspeed from 210 knots to 250 knots. Five minutes later the flight was instructed to reduce the speed to 200 knots. At 13:18:05, the flight was advised, "Alitalia six eighteen you’re three and a half from the marker, turn right zero two zero, cleared ILS four right approach." The DC-8 broke through the clouds at about 600 feet. The runway was in sight, but the plane appeared to be high and slightly on the right. The captain decided to perform a steep approach and took over the controls. He put the four engines at idle-reverse, then selected reverse thrust on Nos. 2 and 3 engines, deciding to select forward thrust when on the proper slope. too busy in rotating the aircraft, the captain could not leave the controls to regain forward thrust. The plane touched down very hard started to yaw to the left. It ground looped and came to rest with the fuselage split open aft of the wing and three out of four engines separated.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the use of reverse thrust in flight, contrary to published procedures, with a resultant uncorrectable high sink rate. The captain's decision to use reverse thrust and not to execute a missed approach was a reaction under stress occasioned at least in part, by Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructions which led to positioning the aircraft too high and too close to the runway. ATC vectored the aircraft to the final approach path under IFR conditions and in the absence of an operating ILS glide slope."

Wow, that's got to be a pretty spectacular sight. My mother's family went to see a shuttle launch, which she said was pretty cool, but you had the best view! 

About that accident, the result sounds like something that happened a couple years ago. A plane (don't remember which, you might remember) came in for a seemingly perfectly landing in, I believe, Brazil (again, not sure. I just saw the story briefly on TV). However, once the plane hit the ground, it slid sideways on the slippery runway and broke in half, each part of the fuselage going in a different direction for a few meters. Luckily, no fatalities.

Geez. I still Have DC-8's flying over my house. You wouldn't think

Well I for one hope that Capt Sim will do the venerable DC-8 and fix up or take over the Sky Simulations DC-9 of whom the builders seem to have given up making payware. The DC-9 was quite a little pocket rocket in the days before they said you can't do more than 250 kts below A100 and I take the now basically defunct Sky Simulations DC-9 for a run now and then but cannot get repaints in OZ colours. Always had a soft spot for the DC-8, think it looks kinda cool for an old bird!

Love Boeings but prefer Douglas aircraft. Always easier to fly for some reason.