Last flying US-registered DC-8 to be displayed at Virginia airport

The last flying US-registered Douglas DC-8, retired in 2025, will go on permanent display at Lynchburg Regional Airport in Virginia. Liberty University plans to use it as an educational landmark.

Samaritan's Purse, a North Carolina-based humanitarian relief organization, donated the aircraft to the university. Liberty said a grant from Boeing supports the project. According to the university, the DC-8 will be the centerpiece of an aviation science, technology, engineering and mathematics and workforce-development site called the DC-8 Overlook at the airport's Preston Glenn Field.

Liberty chancellor Jonathan Falwell said in December that visitors will be able to tour the aircraft and that a museum will accompany it. An airplane-themed playground is also planned.

Boeing's grant will fund a public pavilion that will act as the site's educational center. The university said the center will host events, programming, museum-style exhibits and learning modules tied to aviation careers, along with guided tours, field trips and camps for schools and local youth organizations. Presentations, mentoring sessions and technical demonstrations by university faculty, Boeing employees and veterans are also planned.

Liberty said the display will honor humanitarian air missions and is intended to encourage interest in careers as pilots, technicians, air traffic controllers, military aviators and operators of uncrewed aircraft systems.