In April 1972, after six gruelling years of design and development, the
then Lockheed California Company (now Lockheed Martin) delivered the
most technologically advanced commercial jet of its era, the L-1011
TriStar, to its first client, Eastern Airlines.
To mark the moment, Lockheed decided to make an impressive statement
about the capabilities of its new medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet
airliner. It did so in spectacular fashion. Overseen by two test pilots,
a total of 115 crew members, VIPs, Lockheed employees, and selected
reporters boarded a TriStar at Lockheed's Palmdale plant in California.
The subsequent 4-hour, 13-minute flight to Washington Dulles Airport was
achieved with virtually no input from the two pilots in the cockpit, the
TriStar's Automatic Flight Control System being 'engaged from takeoff
roll to landing'. It was, Lockheed proudly claimed, 'the first
cross-country flight without the need for human hands on the
controls'.
As Lockheed themselves note, in a similar fashion to other iconic
passenger airliners before it, the L-1011 had faced daunting challenges
on the way to its inaugural flight. Divergent needs from competing
airlines led to design challenges. Financial difficulties ravaged its
engine's manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, whilst a recession, fuelled by the
world's first oil crisis, lessened the demand for commercial
airliners.
Lockheed, though, battled through these challenges, which even included
international allegations of bribery, with the result that the TriStar,
famed for its large, curved nose, low-set wings, and graceful swept
tail, remained in production until 1984, by when 250 examples had been
built. The toll on Lockheed, however, was too great and after the
TriStar it withdrew from the commercial aircraft business.
In this revealing insight into the L-1011, the renowned aviation
historian Graham M. Simons reveals the full story of this airliner's
design, development and service over the decades since 1970.
