DC-8 Additions

[YesterAirlines]

Recently I've built up a small backlog of 10 Aeroclassics DC-8s from various sources so I thought I'd start a DC-8 thread as I unbox them, much like the Diesel Nine one I created.

I start with a couple of brand new models. Air Congo DC-8-32 9Q-CLE started life as a N813PA Jet Clipper Bostonian with Pan Am in October 1960. Sold to Air Congo in June 1969 along with another, she quickly became 9Q-CLE and replaced the previously leased Capitol DC-8 on the Lubumbashi-Kinshasa-Brussels via either Paris or Rome route. The aircraft gained the name 'Kisangani' after city that had been renamed from Stanleyville in 1966. Of course the entire country was renamed to Zaire in 1971 and so was the airline itself. CLE was withdrawn in November 1984.

The model nicely recreates the real aircraft as long as you don't look too close. Most of the photos show her with the 'Kisangani' name in script on the forward lower fuselage but there is at least one in which it is absent so the model isn't incorrect. I'm not convinced by the shade of red and the definition of the Leopard logo on the tail is poor. Still overall a really nice release and as usual one nobody else would ever go near.

 

[YesterAirlines]

9Q-CLE's sistership was 9Q-CLF and she shares much of the same history. She began life in October 1960 as N815PA and passed to Air Congo in December 1968 on lease prior to purchase in June 1969. Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's Africanisation policy led to the renaming of the country as Zaire in October 1971 and the model shows her in the new Air Zaire scheme. This aircraft didn't survive as long as CLE for she was stored at Kinshasa in November 1974 and broken up some time afterwards. Aeroclassics does better with the simpler Zaire cat logo than it did with the Congo.

 

[YesterAirlines]

Together 9Q-CLE and CLF make a delightful pair and go equally well with the previously released pair of DC-8-63s. Aeroclassics African releases are some of their best, especially when paired with Douglas moulds. Incidentally I've written about Air Congo at the site previously:

Hope & Despair: Air Congo's Struggle

The history of the Congo has been tumultuous and so has that of its national airline

www.yesterdaysairlines.com

 

[YesterAirlines]

I've been rather remiss in updating this thread. Here's another Eight that's just got out the box. Thai picked up four ex-SAS DC-8-62s but none saw a lot of service as they were all shifted to the Royal Thai Air Force. HS-TGS 'Jiraprabha' had been delivered to SAS as LN-MOC in October 1970. She went to Thailand in March 1979 and operated in Thai Cargo colours. For a while she featured this natural metal belly before switching to the RTAF in October 1982. In 1989 she became N791AL with Arrow Air. Looks like she stayed with various parts of the Arrow group until at least late 2005. This one's a 2008 Aeroclassics release acquired from eBay.



The Far Eastern shelf isn't one of the easier ones to photograph, but here's the Thai component with the DC-8 and A310 added. That makes 10 Thai Airways Int and 2 Thai Airways Company fleet members. Most of the models are Aeroclassics aside from the 737-400 (Panda) and 747-400 (JC Wings):

 

[YesterAirlines]

I've been poor at getting these DC-8s out of the backlog and into the collection, but today another pair have been catalogued and photographed. Air Canada operated 44 DC-8s of different variants. Initially, as Trans Canada Air Lines, they purchased 11 DC-8-43s with Rolls-Royce Conways, but their first DC-8-54 with JT3Ds arrived in April 1963, in fact it was the first DC-8-54CF. Altogether they acquired 8 DC-8-54CFs in the CF-TJx series including TJP and TJQ seen here.



Air Canada DC-8-54F CF-TJP arrived in March 1964. Delivered to TCA, three months later they became Air Canada. By 1971 she was wearing Air Canada Cargo titles as seen on this 2011 Aeroclassics release. She was withdrawn in April 1982. Sistership CF-TJQ went straight to Air Canada in August 1964 and was also withdrawn in April 1982. In 1977 she wore a non-standard scheme with no black anti-glare and an additional Montreal Olympics games sticker as seen on this 2011 Aeroclassics release. Both aircraft had active careers after Air Canada. TJQ served until mid-96 and TJP made it into 2009.

 

[YesterAirlines]

I've been remiss in continuing this DC-8 adoption thread but there are still a selection sitting around in their boxes waiting to be put on display and assimilated into the fleet.

Trans International was one of the largest and most successful of the supplemental airlines and you can see that in that it acquired DC-8s as early as 1962. It operated 28 DC-8s over the next 24 years, including 9 DC-8-61s and 12 DC-8-63s many of which were converted to series 70s. N871TV was an ex-Capitol and Flying Tigers 63CF that joined TIA on lease in April 1979. She was returned to Flying Tigers in July 1984 and converted to a 73F. This Aeroclassics release from 2008 joins a DC-8-61CF, N8960T, in my collection.




These models also give a really clear view of the difference between a series 61 and a series 63, which is captured really well with the Aeroclassics DC-8 moulds. You get the feeling nowadays Aeroclassics would never be able to, or care enough to, produce moulds with these differences, but the Aeroclassics of old was a more skilled company.

 

[YesterAirlines]

Another stretch Eight addition from last year that has only just got unboxed is ABX Air DC-8-63F N819AX, a more recent Aeroclassics release from 2020. Built in 1968 for Canadian Pacific as CF-CPP she saw lease periods with UTA and Worldways Canada before being converted to a freighter in 1990. Onto the US register as N783AL, she flew with Air Transport Intnl and then Airborne Express until 2009 when she flew away to Ghana as 9G-AXD with Meridian Airways and was finally broken up in 2015 after 48 years of service.