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Douglas DC-8-53 blank illustration templates

By Norebbo •  4 min read

Better late than never, I have finally finished my side view templates for the legendary Douglas DC-8-50. It came out of necessity actually, as I needed them for a series of other illustrations I was working on.

With everything else that I’ve been doing lately, it seems “necessity” is the only way I’ve been able to make progress on my side view aircraft template collection. Oh well. I’m just glad to have it done.

Blank side view templates of the Douglas DC-8-53

Having already created a set of side profile illustrations of the DC-8-61 several years ago, doing the -53 variant wasn’t all that big of a project. All I essentially had to do was chop a few sections out of the fuselage.

Douglas DC-8-53 side view

All white Douglas DC-8-53 over a blank background

Douglas DC-8-53 blueprint line drawing

Technical side profile line drawing of a Douglas DC-8-53

buy the Douglas DC-8-53 side view template source files

It should be noted that even though these templates are for the -53 variant, all DC-8-50s looked nearly identical. You could use these illustrations for any project needing DC-8-50 diagrams (any sub variant) and not fool anyone.

What exactly is a Douglas DC-8-50?

The DC-8-50 is a short-fuselage, medium-capacity, long range variant of the DC-8 family of aircraft. 142 were produced, making it the most common of all DC-8 variants It wasn’t the best looking though – that honor went to the DC-8-73 IMHO.

The -50 was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines – which just so happened to be the most common engine type for the Boeing 707.

The Series 50 DC-8 was the best looking of them all as far as I’m concerned. It had the perfect fuselage-to-wing ratio, and the large engines helped to make it look tougher (and more powerful) than it probably was.

I’m not a pilot, but I can’t imagine that any variant of the DC-8 was as nimble and rocket-ship like as the 757-200 was. It sure looks nice though, and that’s all that matters to me.

How is the DC-8-50 different than the DC-8-60?

An entire book could be written to describe every little difference between the 50 Series DC-8 and the 60 Series, but as an industrial designer turned aircraft illustrator, I only care about the visual differences.

Based on all the research I did prior to creating these templates, here are the most significant visual differences between these two variants:

dc-8-50 vs dc-8-60

A visual comparison of the DC-8-50 vs DC-8-60. There’s no mistaking which one is which!

Other interesting facts about the Douglas DC-8-50

I’m really bummed that I never got the chance to get a ride on a DC-8. It was quickly disappearing from the skies just as I was coming of age, and by the time I started flying regularly, they were all gone. Nonetheless, I’ve always been interested in the “Diesel 8” (especially the 50 Series). Here’s why:

Norebbo

My name is Scott, and I started in the design industry over 20 years ago with a bachelors degree in Industrial Design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. I have an extensive background in both 2D and 3D illustration, and these days, I spend a majority of my time creating aircraft templates and airliner art. I’m basically an airplane dork.

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