In April of 1965, Douglas Aircraft launched three new stretched versions of their proven Douglas DC-8 jetliner, which would include the DC-8-61, DC-8-62 and DC-8-63. The standard short body DC-8 series launched in the late 1950s, was only offered in a standard length fuselage. The new DC-8-61 and DC-8-63 were 38 feet longer than the short body DC-8, while the ultra long-range Douglas DC-8-62 was 6 foot 8 inches longer.

The Douglas DC-8-61 was the high density domestic stretch, and was capable of carrying up to 259 passengers. Test flown on March 14, 1966, type certification was granted on September 2, 1966, and it entered service with United Airlines in November of that same year.

In total 88 Douglas DC-8-61s were built. This figure included 10 DC-8-61CFs, the convertible passenger or freight on main deck version, with main deck cargo door.

Factory customers for the Douglas DC-8-61 were Air Canada, Japan Air Lines, and United, Delta, Eastern, National, Saturn, Trans Caribbean, Trans International, and Universal. In the US, the big three operators of the type were United, Detla and Eastern.

Eastern operated 17 factory new DC-8-61s in the late 1960s and early 1970s, on their high density routes from New York to Miami and San Juan, and in the mid 1970s sold most of the fleet to JAL. Delta operated their DC-8-61 fleet sysem wide until the fleet was converted to CFM-56 power in the early 1980s. And the Delta fleet was retired around 1990.

United operated their DC-8-61s primarily between California and Hawaii through the mid 1970s. Staring in 1982, many of United's Douglas DC-8-61s were also converted to CFM-56 engines. National took delivery of two DC-8-61s (in 1967 and 1968) and operated them on between New York, Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Houston.

As the main-line DC-8-61 operators retired their fleets in the 1970s, second level charter and cargo airlines continued on with the type up until the early 1990s, when the type was deemed uneconomical to operate. By 1982, the entire Air Canada fleet was retired to the Marana boneyard (along with many of Air Canada's other passenger DC-8 series).

Today, there is not a single operational Douglas DC-8-61. Although you can visit one and explore its interior at the Shanghai Aviation Museum. It is hard to pin-point when the very last Douglas DC-8-61 flight took place, but it was most likely in the early 1990s.

Presented below are 52 superb photos of the Douglas DC-8-61 classic jetliner from our extensive aircraft image database. Which, by the way, are for sale in both digital and print format. If you are looking for 35mm kodachrome slides of Douglas DC-8-61 aircraft click here for huge selection.

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