This episode is brought to you by SkillShare. Learn new skills or even how to
start a YouTube channel. Like we just did. Check out the link in the description.
The first 150 people to sign up using the link below will get a two month free trail.
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,
engineering, and business go hand in hand. Whether in aviation or any other field,
it takes a wide range of skills to succeed. And that's where SkillShare
comes in. If you've been thinking about launching your own business, pursuing
your hobby, or picking up new skills SkillShare has over 17,000 courses on
offer. From design, to software, to how to run a business. A couple of SkillsShare
courses that caught our eye are their AfterEffects For Beginners, and Animating
With Ease in AfterEffects. Just a couple years ago, I had no idea what
AfterEffects was. But today I'm using it to make these videos. I highly recommend
learning it. But here's the thing; there's a steep learning curve. So, don't spin
your wheels trying to learn from low-quality YouTube tutorials. Learn from
professional teachers offering high-quality courses that will
accelerate your learning. The first 150 viewers who sign up
using the link in the description will get two months of learning for free.
After that, it's just $10 a month. Whatever your passion, SkillsShare have
got you covered.