A giant takes off

We’re glad we waited for the DC-8.

That was how United Airlines legendary President William (Pat) Patterson dismissed the agonising and costly nine month delay in entering the jet age when he accepted the airline’s first DC-8 in September 1959 from long time friend Donald Douglas Snr.

Indeed, Pat was all smiles when he was able to order the far more capable Super 60 series DC-8s just a few years later and United was able to re-engine those DC-8s and sell them for a hand-some price for conversion to freighters with most still flying today – 40 years on.