If only modern jet aircraft had the personality and flair of an old DC-8.

If only modern jet aircraft had the personality and flair of an old DC-8.

My favorite picture with all the black smoke on take off, they were the days. Shortly after take off passengers would be offered cigarettes.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/dc8-smoky-051.jpg

I don't ever remember the engines being that small - compare them to the current 777 engines!

Yes, a bit like four hair dryers strapped underneath the wings.

The engines were cooled by water being sprayed into them causing the smoke.

TGIF huh 

My vote is for the VC-10. 

Don't recall them coming here, maybe BOAC had them, don't recall seeing the four rear mounted engines here in Ausralia, I could be wrong.

I flew AKL-MEL in a VC10, a regular scheduled flight AKL-MEL-PER and then on to London.It was a beautiful aircraft loved by passengers and crew alike but arrived too late on the scene after most airlines were committed to Boeing and Douglas.

747 is the queen of the sky. Period.

The good old 747. I remember being at Tullamarine as a kid when International had 4 departure lounges and those clickity clack modern digital arrivals and departure boards showed what was coming and going. I remember my mother asking the Information Girl (yes they had such a job those days at Tullamarine- she sat near the departure point with a portrait of the Queen behind her) when the next Jumbo jet would be arriving. She looked up her schedules ad gladly told us in another 3 days, we were so excited we came back to see it. They were amazing, with an upstairs with three windows. Years later we saw Pan Am SP's the short version, and then the extended upper deck as we know today. they were lovely aircraft.

VC 10 and Super VC10 did both operate to Australia with BOAC. The B707, VC-10 and DC-8 were all icons of their time, perhaps more so because they were so different to the props that were before them. They also looked very modern compared to the ground vehicles around them in the early 1960s. The newer planes such as The A380, Boeing 777, Dreamliner and the 747 all have their personalities, are a lot safer, cleaner and more comfortable, but have less to differentiate them then their predessors. The big thing that has changed is that now everybody flies, whereas in the 1960s flying was still much more of a novelty and people would turn up to an airport simply to see the arrival of one of these early jets.

I agree they are all icons of their times. I remember a stretch  version of the DC-8, it was starting to get very long and impressive.

Still love the Qantas 707, very similar in appearance to the DC-8 and that familiar black smoke on take off, was my first ever flight, amazing to think the RAAF only stopped using them a few years ago as tankers, although they had new engines.

Yes, the old 707, that iconic horizontal aerial on the tail, totally unique. The 707's and DC-8 were screamers, I can remember them arriving at gates 1 and 2 at Tullamarine, nice and close to the viewing platform, they were incrediby loud, ear piercing. Because they were so loud and made such black smoke, they were considered marvels of their time.

I believe the RAAF got them from QANTAS as genuine one owners.

That's true. I was in the RAAF for a few years and whenever I spoke to the pilots they loved the 707, most were young still and completing their  roso but really enjoyed having to "fly" the 707. The new airbuses are basically sit in the seat and watch the gauges.

Boac certainly operated VC10s to Melbourne in the early 1970s. I have a photo I took as a young kid of my father on the old viewing deck at tullamarine in front of a vc10 he was about to board going to India. Don't know where it stopped enroute. Also have an old BOAC timetable from 70s which has a BOAC vc10 operating accross the Pacific via Fiji and Honolulu to san Francisco!