100 YEARS OF DELTA AIR LINES
DOUGLAS DC-9-14 ( 1965-1973 )
Delta leased a Douglas DC-9-15 from Jet International and flew 16 of the DC- 9-14 type — 14 purchased from Douglas Aircraft and two leased from Eastern Airlines . The DC-9 brought modern jet service to many smaller and mid-sized cities on Delta ’ s routes . Delta sold its remaining DC-9-14s to Southern Airways , the last leaving the fleet in 1973 .
DELTA FLIGHT MUSEUM
LOCKHEED L-100 ( 1966-1973 )
The civil aviation version of the C130 Hercules suited Delta ’ s relatively shorthaul , small-shipment operation in the 1960s . With this plane , Delta offered the first single-carrier cargo service between California and the Southeast , filling a wide gap between the aerospace industries in those regions . When Delta received its first wide-body passenger jets — the Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10 , with their speed and large underfloor cargo capacity — it no longer needed specialized cargo aircraft and phased out the C130s in September 1973 .
LOCKHEED MARTIN
DOUGLAS DC-8-61 / -71 ( 1967-1989 )
Delta debuted its first stretched DC-8 on April 18 , 1967 . Model -61 was 37ft ( 11m ) longer than the standard DC-8 , offering 60 % more seat capacity ; yet , the operating costs were no more than 10 % higher . Delta ’ s two-class cabin configuration held 195 passenger seats . Starting in April 1982 , Delta upgraded these aircraft to -71 standard . It kept them until 1989 , selling them to United Parcel Service ( UPS ).
PROCTOR-LIVESEY-THOMAS COLLECTION
16 AIRWAYS MAGAZINE APRIL 2025 www . airwaysmag . com