Douglas DC-8 Enters Service 

This article is second of a series being prepared to record the history of this durable jet transport. The first appeared in AAHS Journal Vol. 54, No. 1, Spring
2009.

     The fiftieth anniversary of the entry of the Douglas DC-8 into regular passenger service occurred recently. The DC-8 entered service with both Delta Air Lines and United Air Lines on September 18, 1959, the first day the FAA permitted the DC-8-11 to be operated in passenger service. By this date only eight DC-8s had been delivered. United had six DC-8s on hand. Delta had only two, the second being delivered four days before. Delta’s first DC-8 service was from New York’s Idlewild Airport to Atlanta. United’s first service was from San Francisco to New York (IDL). Unlikely though it was, the "little-guy," Delta was first to operate a DC-8 revenue passenger flight. Through a series of happenstances, United Air Lines, who led the list of DC-8 customers, was the second to operate a revenue passenger flight. In this article we will take a look at the DC-8s involved in the first day of service for the type, with particular emphasis on Delta N801E, Ship
14.

Delta DC-8-11 N801E becomes the first to enter
service
     Although few in the industry would have predicted it, Delta Air Lines was the first to put the new DC-8 jet transport into passenger service. In 1959 Delta was not the giant it is today. It was essentially a regional carrier, operating in the southeast. Delta had started as a crop dusting operation, Huff Daland Dusters, in 1924. This led to the formation of Delta Air Service in 1928, Delta Air Corporation in 1930 and Delta Air Lines in 1945. On May 1, 1953, Chicago & Southern Air Lines merged with the growing carrier. Delta was not among the early customers for the DC-8. It was only because another customer had changed its mind about the domestic version of the DC-8 that Delta acquired the relatively early delivery positions. The DC-8 that operated the very first revenue passenger flight was N801E (Ship 14, msn 45408), a DC-8-11, equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT3C-6 engines and was 
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