The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar is generally considered the most advanced widebody aircraft of its time, ahead of the Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10. I decided it would be good to see who had the best TriStar livery – that’s the colours painted on the outside – out of all the airlines that flew it.
Lockheed’s trijet first entered service on 26 April 1972 with Eastern Airlines and eventually had a long career well into the 1990s. Though only 250 examples were built, it saw use all around the world. Let’s have a look at what I think are some of the most striking paint jobs on this plane.
Classic American Metal
While Eastern Airlines was the launch customer, other US carriers also selected the L-1011. Both Trans World Airlines and Delta Air Lines operated the plane domestically and internationally.
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- The second Trans World colours to adorn a Lockheed TriStar.
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- Look at that smile!
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- Delta Air Lines had these popular colours for years.
On the other hand, California’s Pacific Southwest Airlines only used them for about eight months within that state. Fun fact, the PSA planes had a lower deck lounge in the forward cargo hold! Other operators included Pan Am, United and Hawaiian Airlines.
British Brilliance
Across the pond, the airlines of the United Kingdom embraced the product from Palmdale. Holiday airline Court Line had a very attractive TriStar livery, hiding the fact there were 400 seats inside! You can check out more on the special version of the L-1011 for Court Line in an interesting video and write up right here.
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- The Big Banana aka Halcyon Days.
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- The Pink Lady aka Halcyon Breeze.
British Airways also had TriStars with the Landor colours being my favourite. You can see three different seat maps for the various versions they operated in a 1980s timetable here.
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- A timeless British Airways livery.
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- Caledonian looks classy, doesn’t it?
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- Here’s another look!
BA purchased and absorbed Scottish airline British Caledonian in 1988. Next, they renamed their charter subsidiary, British Airtours, Caledonian, which is why we those aircraft are in that lovely livery. Gorgeous isn’t it?
Middle Eastern Mystery
Out in the Middle East and Levant, you will find some great airlines that offer excellent service. One of my personal favourites is Royal Jordanian, who, funnily enough, also operated the L-1011.
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- I never tire of looking at a Royal Jordanian jet.
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- Gulf Air makes things look swish!
Bahrain based Gulf Air made the plane look nice and you also found the TriStar at Saudia. That airline suffered an accident in 1980 at Riyadh which is one of the stranger ones in aviation.
Global Goddess
Travelling further afield, our California manufactured plane could be found with All Nippon Airways in Japan. Lockheed sent around US$3 million to the office of the Japanese Prime Minister to secure the order for 21 Lockheed TriStars, which was infamously known as part of the Lockheed Bribery Scandals.
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- Well, at least it looks good!
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- BWIA West Indies had this as their second scheme.
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- Ireland’s Aer Lingus leased a TriStar for a while.
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- Faucett Peru had this charming red and white livery.
BWIA was based in Trinidad and Tobago, failed in 2006 and subsequently became Caribbean Airlines. Faucett Peru ceased operations in 1997, but happily Aer Lingus is still with us!
A Final TriStar Livery
Last, but not least, is this bit of fun. As mentioned above, Aer Lingus leased one of the aircraft, as it happens from Caledonian. Nice to lease from an airline nearby, I guess.
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- Aww. Ain’t she pretty?
When it was returned, it looks like they just slapped the Caledonian titles and lion on it and left the rest. I guess this is what happens when two airlines have a baby!
Overall Thoughts
After all of that, which airline gets my vote? I think the proper navy blue and white Caledonian one is my favourite, perhaps followed by the classic Delta Air Lines. Of course, I think all of them have a certain retro charm. Not one of the above is a turkey, that’s for sure.
So, having reviewed the evidence, what do you think is the best TriStar livery? Is it one of the above? Or is it one of the airlines I didn’t include? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Caledonian at the gate by Aero Icarus via Wikimedia Commons.
Royal Jordanian by Alain Durand on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
ATA by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
British Airways by Michel Gilliand on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Caledonian Aer Lingus by Pedro Aragão on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Caledonian take-off by Pedro Aragão on Jetphotos.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Gulf Air by Alain Rioux on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Court Line Yellow by Michael Bernhard on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Court Line Pink by Ralf Manteufel on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
PSA by Piergiuliano Chesi via Wikimedia Commons.
All Nippon Airways by Christian Volpati on AirlineFan.com via Wikimedia Commons.
BWIA by Ken Fielding on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.
Delta Air Lines by PhotoNoir on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.
TWA by Aero Icarus on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.
Faucett Peru by Torsten Maiwald on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Aer Lingus by Sunil Gupta on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
I miss flying L1011s on TWA during the 90’s. The seats in F were like LA-Z-BOYS, although the foot rest was old-fashioned.
Sounds very comfortable all round!!
Hard to beat the BA / Caledonian look of distinction, but Eastern silver and TWA red stripe are the iconic L1011 looks in my book.
You know, the Eastern white is iconic for me, the silver, not so much. I always hated the silver EA livery, on all the aircraft it was on. The white looked so much better, to me anyway! Thanks for that, everyone seems to like that TWA one too!
The Tristar was certainly a photogenic aircraft. I really liked the hockey striped Eastern Airlines with the “Whisperliner” description on the #2 engine, but my favorite was the original TWA livery with the golden globe on the tail
Agreed, I’ve always loved that Eastern Airlines livery… as long as it’s the white one. I thought the silver one looked awful. That other TWA one is nice too, I agree!
I’ll throw in the final TWA livery for consideration
I really liked their final livery, it really looked very amazing. I should have thrown in a pic of that but decided to go with the one before. It’s a classy looking paintjob, that’s for sure!