I taught the DC-8 amongst other Long Beach cable cars a few years ago @ BADWRENCH, er....BF Big b!tch @ KPAE. You'd be hard pressed to find a tougher bird anywhere.
Many years ago Consolidated Freightways dispatched a -55F out of KPDX but the ground crew didn't get the MCD latched correctly (pretty tough, push in on one handle, but you don't hire bag busters because they have a Phd in psycology) and it popped open as the gear was coming up and flapped up and down in the airstream for about 35 minutes until the crew could land and taxi back to the ramp. A quick damage inspection was performed, none found, the door was cycled several times, latched and the aircraft was dispatched to it's original destination, far as I know it's still earning a living somewhere in the world-try that with a 727.
Heres an easy bar bet you can win-ask the next guy to name the three different types of certificated commercial airliners to be verified as going supersonic.
1) CONCORDE
2)Tu-144
3) Trans Canada DC-8-44 with Rolls Royce CONWAYS chased by a USAF F-104, it did go past 1.03
Not bad for an old round nosed elephant Huh?
You will never wear one out, about the only thing that will can an 8 is corrosion along longeron 24 it's very complex in shape and runs the length of the fuselage about 1/2 way down the lower cargo sidewalls on both sides, everything else is just very thick 7075-T6. In fact in the back of the MM in Chapter 91 is the list of control cables used and their lengths down to 1/32nd of an inch which you used to be able to order from McD, don't know in Boeing still honors that or not
Same story with the 10, tough bird thats hard to wear out. And, if engine technology was then what it is now, there quite possibly never would have been a 767. The original DC-10 proposal was a two decked, 550 seat, four high bypass powered intercontinental airliner, as was the proposed MD-12, but airport managers in the mid 60's freaked out at the prospect of several of them arriving at the same time and having to deal with the wave of bodies, and it could have been in service before the 47 got all it's teething problems ironed out.
The MoF has the last flyable DC-2 (not that they ever will again fly it) it restored in Long Beach, and now sits outside in Seattles wonderful rainy, salt laden atmosphere so it will be just like the DC-3 that sat outside the Museum for so many years, a corroded pile you can put your finger through.
In case it hasn't showed yet, I really do love the DC-8 and DC-10, they're as simple as a Pine Log, and once you understand one, you understand how they all work.
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