Maple Tristars: Air Canada L-1011s

Though Air Canada had operated Lockheed Constellations it had been a firm Douglas customer throughout the jet-age. It is therefore a testament to the design of the Lockheed Tristar that despite this Air Canada chose the graceful trijet - placing an order for 10 aircraft with 9 options in December 1968. The Tristar weathered its stormy development and served the Canadian national carrier for 26 years.

The sale was definitely assisted by the unusual deal that saw Rolls-Royce (manufacturers of the aircraft's troubled RB-211 engines) setup a company, Air Holdings, to resell a set number of Tristars outside of the USA and act as the worldwide sales distributors of the type. Though designed to appease US interests, angry with both Eastern and TWA ordering an aircraft powered by foreign engines, by creating 30 firm orders the Air Holdings agreement also had the benefit that Commonwealth nations like Canada were able to get tax exemptions on the engines.

The Tristars cost $18.1 million each and were fitted out in Air Canada service for 257 passengers. They were primarily puchased for transcontinental domestic services and the tourist routes to Florida such as Toronto-Miami. Rolls-Royce and subsequently Lockheed's near collapse due issues with the Tristar's engines are well documented however Air Canada stuck with the type (partly due to a $30 million advance deposit and 11 Canadian companies making components for the type) and the first aircraft entered service on March 15, 1973 between Montreal and Vancouver. Other Tristar destinations included Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax and St Johns.

In addition to the trans-con routes Air Canada upgraded some of its fleet with extra long-range fuel tanks so they could operate non-stop Edmonton-Prestwick-London and Toronto-Frankfurt services. As well as extra tanking a galley was built into the lower deck to enable provision of the extra meals required. Air Canada operated 12 standard length Tristars registered from C-FTNA-L.

The Canadians were not finished with the Tristar however and in April 1979 as part of their 10 year fleet renewal programme Air Canada ordered six of the shortened long-range Tristar 500s with options on a further nine aircraft. The initial order was worth about $125 million with deliveries commencing in February 1981 when C-GAGF was delivered. She was followed by C-GAGG-K with the last arriving in September. The Tristar 500s were bought primarily for medium density transatlantic services and served for about a decade. In 1991 all six of the Tristar 500s were sold to Delta Air Lines which was ramping up its own European operations. C-GAGF became N764DA and served with Delta for another decade until she was withdrawn at Victorville in early 2001.

Air Canada's standard length Tristars had all been withdrawn by November 1990, with several sold to Air Lanka in the mid-80s, however several frames were stored in the desert. Following the end of the early 90s recession Air Canada needed to increase its capacity and so three Tristars were returned to service and used exclusively on routes between Vancouver, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto. The aircraft were given a roomy 238 seat configuration and re-established themselves as customer favourites for three more years. Interestingly C-FTND and FTNF were the only aircraft to receive the 1988 double red stripe livery. The three reactivated aircraft (C-FTND, G, L) all received the white fuselage early 90s scheme. The last of the three aircraft, FTND, contined in service until late 1999.