Lockheed L-1011-1 | 1979-1998 livery

In the late 1960s, NNA was searching for a long range airliner that had a lower range that the 747 they had recently ordered, and with slightly lower capacity for lower demand routes. At the time there were 2 candidates, the DC-10 and the L1011. After lots of negotiation, they agreed to buy the L1011 and placed an initial order of 20 L1011-1s. They were the first international customer for the L1011 and 3rd overral, after Inter American Airlines (IAA), and New England Airways. The first aircraft was delivered on July 7, 1972, and entered service on August 11. They will go on to order 12 L1011-500s in 1977. As a matter of fact, they actually did consider the DC-10-30, due to the late introduction of the L1011-500, but opted to keep the L1011 orders after the crash of a DC-10 that grounded the worldwide DC-10 fleet. The L1011 fleet operated until 2001, when it was replaced with 777s and A330s.