On its first flight, May 30, 1958, the first DC-8 jetliner was flanked by a technical chase plane from the U.S. Air Force as it cruised high above the Pacific Ocean en route to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., from the Long Beach Municipal Airport. Forty years later, 294 of 556 DC-8s produced between 1958 and 1972 are operating and the fleet adds an estimated 1,000 hours of revenue service a day to a record exceeding 29.9 million hours.