Douglas DC-8 (piston airliner)

The Douglas DC-8 was a piston-engined airliner project of the Douglas Aircraft Company, conceived shortly after the end of World War II, more than a decade before the DC-8 jetliner. Based on the cancelled XB-42, it was meant to serve short and medium range routes with 40 to 48 passengers in a pressurized cabin. Two Allison V-1710 engines fitted below and behind the cockpit were to drive contra-rotating propellers in the tail through driveshafts under the cabin floor, an arrangement that promised to cut drag by 30 percent and avoid the control problems of an engine failure on a conventional twin. Excessive complexity and high development costs meant that airlines preferred less risky types such as the Convair 240 and the Martin 2-0-2, and the project was dropped before a prototype was built.