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The 1960's were a fascinating time for

civil aviation. Full of incredible stories like the story of how Lockheed,

an aerospace company known for its military aircraft, set out to build the

world's most advanced airliner. And that's exactly what they did.

Passengers loved it's spacious cabin and smooth, quiet ride. Pilots boasted about

its handling, power, and ergonomics. Nearly 50 years ago, this aircraft could fly

itself from takeoff to landing without any of the pilots touching the controls.

But this is also the same aircraft that nearly bankrupt the company that built

it. Generating billions of dollars in losses and guaranteeing that Lockheed

would never try to build another airliner.

When launched the L-1011 TriStar was the most technologically advanced commercial

airliner ever. Making leaps forward in efficiency, comfort, and safety. The

TriStar introduced innovations that should have made it a commercial success.

This aircraft should have helped Lockheed leapfrog ahead of its

competition. The Tristar featured a highly advanced autopilot system. It

could land the plane at certain airports in completely blind, zero visibility

weather, when other planes of the era, well they would need to divert to other

airports. And its degree of system redundancy earned the L-1011 an

excellent reputation for safety. Lockheed even put extra effort into the TriStar's

cabin. It wasn't your typical cramped cattle car. It was different. It was sleek

and spacious, nothing like its competitors. This was, by

just about any measure, a superior aircraft. It was ahead of its time. But

how did such a highly-revered aircraft like the L-1011 turn out to be such a

huge financial failure? To answer that question, you have to go back to 1966. You

could say it began with a man named Frank Kolk, one of the head honchos at

American Airlines. American was in the market for a new type of aircraft. At the

time there was a lot of excitement over Boeing 747, a large, efficient wide-body

promising to be lucrative for Airlines. But Kolk worried about American's ability

to fill seats on something as large as a 747. What he really needed was something

that carried less passengers (around 250) but with the efficiency of a

second-generation wide-body airliner. So Kolk put the word out to rival aircraft

manufacturers. Boeing had enough on their plate

they were busy raking it in with their 747 and 737 programs. But Douglas and

Lockheed were interested. Kolk initially wanted a twin-engine jet, but the

Federal Aviation Administration 60-minute rule would prove to be a

challenge. The 60-minute rule meant that any twin-engine civil aircraft could

only fly as far as 60 minutes from an airport should it need to divert in an

emergency. Not so practical for airlines that wanted to fly across oceans. But a 3

engine tri-jet configuration could get around the 60 minute rule, yet still be

more efficient than the 4 engine jets that were crossing oceans at the time.

Douglas, which was in the process of merging with McDonnell Aircraft, had a

history of building successful jet-powered airliners. They wanted to

keep development costs low, so their approach was to use technologies and

systems which they had already developed. Lockheed on the other hand, had never

built a jet-powered airliner and their last commercial aircraft, the turboprop

driven Electra, well it was kind of a disaster. Plagued by early accidents and

poor sales. Lockheed had something to prove, so they would set out to build an

advanced airliner to make rival McDonnell Douglas's entry look like

yesterday's news. After all, this was the company that had just finished building

the SR-71 Blackbird. So, surely they could handle designing an

airliner. Lockheed's design called for a center-mounted engine to receive air

through a curving S-duct. The problem was, there wasn't an engine in production short

enough to fit the installation. And the only engine manufacturer to have

anything on the drawing board that would fit, was Rolls-Royce. But what they had

looked promising. A lighter more efficient engine that would give the

L-1011 an advantage. But here's the thing, someone at Rolls Royce must have been

one hell of a smooth talker, because Rolls Royce was about to

seriously over promise and under deliver.

Even before Rolls-Royce's engine would fail the bird-strike test, shattering its

innovative Hyfill fanstage to pieces, it had been struggling. After years of

work, it still couldn't meet the performance requirements that it had promised

Lockheed. And the financial situation at Rolls-Royce was a mess. In 1971, it was

forced to declare bankruptcy. And Rolls pointed the finger squarely at the

L-1011 program. But things were also looking bad on Lockheed's end. Its own

financial situation by now had deteriorated. It struggled with cost

overruns and other defense project cancellations. And a Rolls-Royce

bankruptcy would mean no engine for the L-1011. Finding an alternative would mean

massive delays that Lockheed was in no position to ride out. But you can't get

any more British than Rolls-Royce, and the Government wasn't about to let a

company of such national importance just disappear. So, the British government

nationalized the company and worked with the Americans to guarantee bank loans

for Lockheed, so that there would be an L-1011 to purchase those Rolls-Royce

engines. And this allowed Rolls-Royce to sort out their engineering issues. And

they ended up with a fantastic engine. But for Lockheed, there was always an

elephant in the room. For years, American Airlines has dreamed of having a quiet

plane with virtually smokeless engines as comfortable as the 747, but able to

land at almost any commercial airport. Introducing the new DC-10 Luxury-Liner

See, even before the whole engine debacle, American Airlines had decided to go with

the rival DC-10. McDonnell Douglas was a proven manufacturer with a track record

in civil aviation. Lockheed on the other hand was the new player. While the L-1011

would pick up early sales from the large Airlines, its sales would always lag

behind the DC-10, even as the DC-10 started blowing out its cargo doors and

sprinkling the Midwest with engine parts. But the big problem was that these

aircraft were too big fish sharing a little pond. There wasn't a big enough

market to support two wide-body tri-jets and sales of both suffered for it.

And by the late 1970's and early 80's, a new kind of aircraft had entered the

market. The efficient wide-body twin-jet that Frank Kolk had always really wanted.

Newly formed Airbus had introduced the A300, taking a big chunk out of both

L-1011 and DC-10 tri-jet sales. Lockheed would only ever sell half the TriStars it

would need just to break even, and it was eventually forced to shut down

production in 1984. The TriStar certainly wasn't perfect. No machine is. Some claim

it was over-engineered, making it a bit of a maintenance hog. But it was the most

advanced airliner of its day, save maybe for the Concorde. The Tristar would earn

a fantastic safety record and it was loved by pilots and passengers alike. But

it couldn't get past its rocky start and the realities of an overcrowded and

quickly changing market. The L-1011 was a technological marvel, but by Lockheed's

own admission, a financial failure. And that goes to show you that great design,

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