The Large Economy Size

When United Air Lines Flight 191 took off last week from Los Angeles International Airport on its maiden run to Honolulu, it ushered in a new era in commercial aviation. The plane making the flight, with 166 passengers aboard, was the first Douglas Aircraft DC-8-61 to go into service. The world's largest commercial jetliner, it has a maximum passenger capacity of 251 (v. the Boeing 707's 199). Big as the DC-8-61 is, it is only a start. By 1969, Boeing plans deliveries on its 490-passenger 747. And by the mid-1970s Lockheed expects to turn out a commercial version of its C-5A military transport that could carry up to 840 passengers.

Until then, beleaguered Douglas, which recently agreed to merge with McDonnell Co., hopes to make some gravy on its new plane. Almost 40 ft. longer than the standard 150-ft.-long DC-8 jet, the 3,750-mile-range Super 61 is essentially a stretched-out copy of the earlier plane. In the works are two other versions: the smaller but longer-range (5,750 miles) DC-8-62 and the DC-8-63, which will be the size of the 61 and have almost the range of the 62. The entire series should sell briskly. So far, Douglas has orders for 150 of the $8,000,000 "Super 60s."

The very existence of the Super 61 underscores the economic advantages of bigger commercial airliners, particularly for such high-density service as United's Los Angeles-Honolulu run. Douglas figures that the new plane's cargo capacity alone is so great (2,500 cu. ft.) that an operating airline could book no passengers and still break even on a flight from freight revenue.

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