This 1950s airline promo film shows us the final assembly and early flight tests of the prototype Douglas DC-8 jetliner to roll off the Long Beach assembly line. Back then, airliner test pilots had to wear helmets during the test flights, to protect themselves from an airborne evacuation.
This film opens with showing the Douglas DC-8 planners in production meetings and then the first DC-8s rolling down the production line at the Long Beach factory in the late 1950s. We then see the first DC-8 being pulled out from the factory for the first time by a tractor, and technicians working on the aircraft on the flight Long Beach flight line.
Finally its time to taxi the new jetliner and we see the DC-8 powering down the runway for presumably her first flight aloft. A good portion of this early airline movie shows the Douglas DC-8 in flight, filmed from the chase plane, performing various test flight profiles, including turns, climbs, steep descents and the final landing back at Long Beach.
Even though this film was in relatively poor shape, we felt it was important enough for the JetFlix community as the historical interest level trumps all else. As we all know, from the DC-8 prototype experiences of the late 1950s, Douglas was able to fine tune their first jetliner to become a worldwide success. The DC-8 was advanced and stretched through the 1960s until production ceased in the early 1970s with the introduction of the Douglas DC-10. But this little film was where it all started for Douglas when they decided to enter the commercial airline jet race in the mid 1950s.
