Manufacturer: Lockheed
Years in commercial service: 1972-2008
Number built: 250
Maximum passenger capacity: 400
The nuts and bolts
The Seventies were a seismic decade for mass-market aviation, witnessing the birth of three major wide-bodied (ie, broad enough to have two passenger aisles) aircraft. Two of them – the Boeing 747 and the Douglas DC-10 – have been the subject of endless prose; the third is a little more forgotten. For a short while, Lockheed’s L-1011 Tristar threatened to provide both these behemoths with sterling competition, and it made its way into the fleets of, among others, Eastern Airlines (the Florida-based carrier which flew the inaugural service – on April 26 1972), British Airways, and Delta.
That, ultimately, it failed to do so, was not down to any technical shortcomings. It was partly named for its three-engine configuration – one under each wing, one embedded in the tail. And Lockheed, a company which had vast experience in the military sector, equipped its new foray into the commercial market with the latest technology. But the consequence was a higher price tag which discouraged potential customers. Its game was largely up by the end of the millennium, with Delta, the biggest operator, retiring the plane in 2001. Its final commercial flight was in May 2008 – for LAB Bolivian Airlines.
