Eastern's Electras Pt2: Shuttle Survivors

With its structural issues fixed the Electra was free to gain its place in the Eastern fleet, although this was never at the forefront as Rickenbacker had believed it would be. Quickly over taken by Boeing 727s and Douglas DC-9s the Electra nevertheless found its niche replacing the older piston prop-liners and operating the high density shuttle routes.

For part 1 of this story see: Eastern's Electras Pt1: Props Not Pure Jets

As the Electra's problems became apparent and they began filing back to Burbank, to go through the LEAP programme at Lockheed, towards the beginning of 1961 Eastern decided that the type needed a facelift. This would result in the biggest change to the Eastern livery since the 1940s. The new scheme appeared on the first post-LEAP Electras in February 1961, however it was the new Boeing 720s which were the first new aircraft to wear the scheme and accordingly staff referred to it as the "720 Scheme".

N5520 wearing the original '720 Scheme' variant. Photo by Ed Coates

The new scheme was a major modification of the already modified several times DC-8 livery with the 'spear' reduced and the new Falcon in red on the tail. The titles kept the "FLY EASTERN AIR LINES" of the last DC-8 scheme variant but were reduced to simply "FLY EASTERN" in late 1963. Most of the fleet got into a variant of the 720 Scheme but it was a short-lived livery due to the boardroom civil war that Eastern was enduring between factions loyal to either the CEO Malcom MacIntyre or the former CEO Eddie Rickenbacker.

N5504 at Palm Beach in 1965. Photo by Jon Proctor from Wikipedia. Interestingly the Falcon here is more streamlined and in gold

Following MacIntyre's, and also Rickenbacker's departure towards the end of 1963, Eastern was ripe for a proper change. As I've covered previously operation bootstrap led to the famous Hockeystick colours - see my blogpost here for more details:

Enter the New Mark: Eastern's Hockeystick

With the Electra's now out of the news and very much yesterday's airliner they were free to get on with their business without any media furore. It of course helped that the 'new' Electra (several airlines called them Electra IIs but Eastern called them 'Super Electras') had shaken off its, ahem, teething troubles (y'know I didn't even notice that bad pun when I first wrote this). New Boeing 727s were replacing the DC-7s, whilst DC-9s began appearing in 1966. The Electras gradually began to replace the surviving Lockheed Super Constellation fleet, many of which were assigned to the wildly successful Eastern Air Shuttle routes.

Note: Below, N5525 was one of the fleet that wore small EASTERN titles on the tail. This was worn by only a few of the early New Mark schemed aircraft.

By 1964 the Shuttle routes accounted for an incredible 20% of Eastern's passengers and yet this large population of customers was using the oldest shabbiest equipment. To counter this Electras began replacing the Super Connies on shuttle flights in 1965, but it wasn't until February 1968 that the last Connie was retired. By this time many of the original Electra operators like National and Northwest were beginning to shed their much smaller Electra fleets, however Eastern could not afford to dump them all. It did nonetheless begin the type's disposal with the first aircraft to go being the last pair delivered. They were sold to the Swedish operator Falconair.

The Electras disposed of by 1973

Indeed with its problems out of the way the Electra appears to have attained a decent resale value. Further sales saw six Electras sold to SAM Colombia, two to SAHSA and two to Lineas Aereas Paraguayas in South America at the end of the 1960s. Other sales were made, with the types retail value as a freighter obvious, so that by 1973 only 15 aircraft remained. One of these was sold to Copa Airlines in May 1974.

By the mid-70s the remaining Electras were only on shuttle flights, often as backups to 727s and DC-9s. The Electra was involved in one further bizarre incident when on Friday July 2, 1976 N5531 was damaged beyond repair by a bomb on the ground at Boston Logan. The device was planted in the rear undercarriage bay and the aircraft was destroyed in the resulting fire. It appears the bombing was related to a radical left wing group which suggested that for the USA's 200th anniversary that people go to work and kill their bosses, bomb airplanes etc. It seems however that nobody was ever apprehended for this unusual act. N5531 was at the time, along with many other Eastern aircraft, wearing the bicentennial logo applied to the forward fuselage.

There isn't much left of N5531 after the bombing. Photo by Clint Groves

The last 15 Electras in the Eastern fleet

The Electra's final service for Eastern took place on October 30, 1977 marking over 17 years of service with the airline, quite an achievement considering the type's inauspicious start. Time had finally caught up with the Electras which, although capable of beating a DC-9 for time on the route due to propjets efficiency at low altitudes, was becoming very expensive to maintain. The propellers especially were nearly four times as expensive as they had once been. Even at the end of the 1970s the Electra was still sought after in the second-hand market and of the 14 survivors in the Eastern fleet all but one found second homes.

References

Cearley Jr, G.W. Eastern Air Lines: An Illustrated History
Russell, D.L. Eastern Air Lines: A History, 1926-1991
Serling, R.J. From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Air Lines