100 YEARS OF DELTA AIR LINES
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS DC-9-32 ( 1967-1993 )
The Model 32 was 15ft ( 4.5m ) longer than the standard DC-9 and carried up to 108,000lb gross weight . It held 89 passenger seats . The first was delivered to Delta on April 9 , 1967 , and entered into service on April 20 , 1967 . By July 1971 , Delta had 63 Model -32s . The aircraft served until 1993 , when Delta replaced them with the Boeing 727 . Later , 51 DC-9-30s returned when Northwest Airlines merged with Delta in 2008 .
PROCTOR-LIVESEY-THOMAS COLLECTION
DOUGLAS DC-8-33 ( 1968-1974 )
Between December 1968 and August 1969 , Delta took delivery of seven DC- 8-33s from Pan Am . The airline used them on Delta-Pan Am interchange service to Europe and on some longhaul domestic routes . In January 1974 , Delta withdrew them and sold them to Boeing .
BOB POLANECZKY
BOEING 747-100 ( 1970-1977 )
Delta ’ s received its first Boeing 747 , in Atlanta , on October 2 , 1970 . Four more 747s arrived by November 1971 . In a dedication ceremony held in Atlanta on October 24 , 1970 , Georgia Governor Lester G . Maddox christened Delta Ship 101 the Georgia Belle , sprinkling gold dust from Georgia ’ s Dahlonega mines over the plane ’ s nose . The Georgia Belle went into service the next day with one daily roundtrip : Atlanta-Dallas-Los Angeles . Delta plied its 747 fleet between the major cities of its route system , including Chicago , Dallas / Fort Worth , Detroit , Los Angeles , Miami , New York , and San Francisco .
STEVE FITZGERALD
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