Airborne DC-8 Low Pass

From the Cargo Facts Archives!

This scene likely dates from the early 1990s. A sixty-series DC-8 in Airborne Express livery is doing a low pass at Airborne Airpark (now Wilmington Air Park) in Wilmington, Ohio. The DC-8, and particularly the 60-series, rotates and climbs at a relatively shallow angle, but to see one this close to the ground with the gear up means a low pass. In the early 90’s Airborne and its base were rapidly expanding – a new runway was added to Airborne Park in 1995 – it’s possible that this photo has something to do with testing at the airport.

Today the DC-8s, like the Airborne name, are gone – replaced by 767s and the ABX air name, although some ABX Air airplanes still bear traces of the Airborne Express livery.

ABX Air shelved the DC-8’s years ago (many were stored even before the transition to ABX Air that took place as a result of DHL buying Airborne and spinning off the air operations in 2003) and those which were not permanently stored and scrapped were sold on mainly to operators in Ghana and other parts of Africa, where some are still flying.