The Best Airliner Nobody Bought (Lockheed L-1011 TriStar)

In 1968 Lockheed set out to build the best widebody jet in the world. The L-1011 TriStar had a Rolls-Royce engine buried in its tail, a flight control system that could land itself in fog, and a ride pilots still talk about. It also bankrupted Rolls-Royce, needed a government rescue that passed the Senate by a single vote, and dragged Lockheed into a bribery scandal that reached a prime minister in Tokyo. Only 250 were built. This is the story of the best airliner nobody bought. Did you fly on a TriStar, work on one, or prefer the DC-10? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The last TriStar still flying 2:07 The Race (1966 to 1968) 6:09 The Engine (1968 to 1971) 10:20 One Vote (1971) 14:23 The Airplane (1972 to 1981) 18:47 Seventy Days in Tokyo (1972 to 1977) 23:55 The End (1978 to today) KEY SOURCES William Lazonick & Andrea Prencipe, on the RB211 contract, citing Keith Hayward (1989) and Reed (1973) TIME, February 15, 1971 and August 16, 1971 Voteview, House roll call on H.R. 8432 (1971) and Senate vote, August 2, 1971 U.S. General Accounting Office, report B-169300 (1974), and final report of the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations (Church Committee), hearings, February 1976 House Report 95-640 (1977), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Carl Kotchian's own account of the Japan sales campaign The New York Times, 1971; Christian Science Monitor, 1983; Australian Aviation, 1989; Britannica Lockheed and Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) production totals; NASA for the Stargazer and Pegasus missions Where a figure comes from a single account, the narration says so ("reportedly", "according to one account"). PHOTO AND FOOTAGE CREDITS San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives (SDASM), Flickr Commons, no known copyright restrictions (including photos by I. E. Quastler) NASA, public domain (images.nasa.gov; NASA/Lori Losey; NASA Glenn Research Center via U.S. National Archives) U.S. National Archives; Gerald R. Ford Library; Jimmy Carter Library; U.S. Senate Historical Office; U.S. Congress; U.S. Army; U.S. Air Force; U.S. Navy (public domain) Library of Congress: Marion S. Trikosko, U.S. News & World Report Collection; Edmund S. Valtman cartoon (no known restrictions) Nationaal Archief / Anefo and Spaarnestad Photo (CC0 / no known restrictions) UK Ministry of Defence, Open Government Licence v1.0 Cabinet Public Relations Office of Japan, CC BY 4.0 (Kakuei Tanaka, 1972) SAS Museum and other public domain files via Wikimedia Commons Eastern Air Lines Airbus A300 N202EA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 Flickr, CC BY 2.0: Eric Friedebach, Steve Lynes, simonbutler2, kitmasterbloke (Steve Knight), SymphonicPoet (David Ackerman), Donnchadh H, chris.rycroft, Pauline and John Grimshaw Flickr, CC BY 4.0: Infinity & Beyond Photography (Kev Cook), Ian E. Abbott Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 and creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Photos are shown unaltered except for cropping, color and framing. Some atmosphere scenes (factories, offices, cities, runways) and the background music were created with AI tools. They never show a real aircraft or a real person. Every real airplane you see is a real photograph or real footage; the diagrams are illustrations, not to scale. Narration is an AI voice. Airliner Archive tells the stories behind the airliners, the airlines and the deals that shaped the jet age. #aviationhistory #L1011 #TriStar