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If you have not read "An interesting experience from a pilot " please go back and read that blog before this one! My first flight trip on the DC-8 was a day trip through South America. I was a brand-new Flight Engineer operating under the watchful eye of a 75-year-old Flight Engineer instructor. The first leg, from Miami to Lima, Peru, was an exhilarating five-hour flight over Cuba, the Caribbean Sea, and the mountainous jungles of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. I still remembe

The DC-8 was originally built in 1958 by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was Mr. Douglas's first jet transport; its predecessor, the DC-7, was a piston-powered airliner. The DC-8 is a large airplane. The stretched versions could carry up to 18 cargo containers (4.5 tractor-trailer loads) or, in passenger service, as many as 259 passengers. Early jet engines were loud, smoky, and thirsty. I remember standing on the ramp in Trinidad watching friends depart in a DC-8. The groun

Have you ever wondered where our 1940 Boeing Stearman has been… and whose hands have guided it over the past 86 years? This week I took a deep dive into our Stearman’s history, and what I uncovered was far more fascinating than I ever expected. 📜 Among the aircraft records is the original Bill of Sale showing that Kenneth L. Bemis of Brawley, California purchased our Stearman in 1952—for the princely sum of $10.00. 💵 Yes… ten dollars. Forty-two years later, in 1994, Mr. Bem