Post-1945, Douglas Aircraft Corporation acknowledged an opportunity to meet the high demand for airline aircraft by recognizing the future of commercial flying in jet-powered aircraft following ...

Edwards took Douglas DC-8-43 no. N9604Z for a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The aircraft exceeded Mach 1—the only intentional supersonic flight by an airliner other than ...

The rise of jet airliners was part of the driving force of this change. The Douglas DC-8, one of the very first jet airliners, helped to pave the way and would be superseded by another very ...

The McDonnell-Douglas DC-8 was first flown in 1958 and originally designed to be a military aerial refueling tanker, but once the Douglas Aircraft Company lost the military tanker contract to then ...

The aircraft, which NASA describes as the “largest flying science laboratory in the world”, is a specially modified McDonnell Douglas DC-8-72 passenger jet. NASA acquired the four-engined ...

Acquired by NASA in 1985, the DC-8 was used on 158 science campaigns. Credit: Matt Hartman NASA’s long-serving McDonnell Douglas DC-8-72 research aircraft flew for the final time on May 15 when ...

Despite flying relatively few hours, the DC-8 has become hard to support. Credit: NASA After several years of studying various replacement options for its venerable McDonnell Douglas DC-8-72 ...

Myer, Virginia. Donald W. Douglas holding a prototype model of the DC-8, circa 1955. [Courtesy: museumofflying.org] In 1912, Douglas left the U.S. Naval Academy and took a position in the civil ...