The DC8 had no leading edge slats or flaps. It had 2 leading edge slots on each wing inboard of each engine pylon with retractable and extendable doors to open or close the slot.
The DC8's elevator has no hydraulic power. You used muscle power and aerodynamic control tabs to move the elevator.
The DC8's cabin was pressurized by 4 turbocompressors located behind the air inelts in the nose.
The DC8 was the first civilian airliner to break the sound barrier.
The DC8 had no windshield wipers. It used bleed air to blow the rain off the windscreen.
The DC8 has no flight spoilers. To slow down it used reverse thrust on engines # 2 & 3. With the gear down # 1 & 4 could be revesed as well.
Wow that's pretty interesting :D How exactly did you control the castering on the main gear?
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The bogey automatically unlocked after a certain degree of steering tiller input. I forget how much it was. But I remember that when lining up for takeoff if you had to make a sharp turn onto the active you had to line the plane up on the centerlien and then taxi it foward in a straight line about 15 or 20 feet to make sure the bogey was centered and locked. The point of the castering bogey was to minimize tire scrubbing in tight turns. I think most operators removed this option and put the bogey in a fixed centered position to reduce maintenance costs.
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