DALLAS – Today in Aviation, the narrow-body airliner Douglas DC-8 enters service with Delta Air Lines (DL), followed by United Airlines (UA) in 1959.
While Pan Am was the first airline to order the DC-8 in October 1955, it would be rivals DL and UA that would first put the aircraft into revenue service.
Both DL and UA chose the jet-powered airliner in order to keep up with their competition and replace their Douglas DC-6 and 7 fleets. Indeed, UA was pivotal in the design of the…