United Airlines entered the jet age with the Douglas DC-8 in 1959. Although Delta Air Lines is the official launch customer of the aircraft, United did put a DC-8 into revenue service on the same day Delta did. United would also launch the Boeing 727 and the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 similarly - 727 simultaneously with Eastern, DC-10 with American.

This is the -52 variant. The -50 series was the most advanced of the original-length DC-8s, and made the backbone of United transcontinental services in the 1960s.

This aircraft was first placed into service in 1966, before being retired and stored in Las Vegas in 1980, and becoming part of the California Science Center collection in 1984. Initially in the 1970s Saul Bass-designed "Rainbow" livery and parked on the ground, it was later painted back to the original 1960s "Jet Mainliner" livery and mounted on a custom stand.

United also operated the later variants of the DC-8, the stretched Super Sixty series, and some of them, by being updated to Super Seventy by re-engining, stayed in service into the early 1990s. One of my first air travel experiences was a United Super Seventy in 1991. The ample numbers of the Super Sixty, not to mention newer, more efficient aircraft (747, DC-10, 727-200A), in the United fleet was the reason for the rather early retirement of this particular aircraft - a fate later shared by the 737-500 fleet at United (delivered 1991-1993), some of which were scrapped after only 13 years in service.

Nose details. It has been almost 20 years since the repaint and the mounting, and the United Shield is almost faded away already.