Widebody Airliners | 1971-1973

(TOP)
Airline - Royal Imperial Air Company
Aircraft - Lockheed L1011-1 | G-ADUA
Delivered to the Royal Imperial Air Company, 1973
Transferred to Royal Airways, 1974
Sold to Airborne Medical International, 1989
Stored at Kansas City International Airport, 2002
Livery - Standard 1961
Country - Great Britain

(BOTTOM)
Airline - Royal Imperial Air Company
Aircraft - Boeing 747-100 | G-ADSA
Delivered to the Royal Imperial Air Company, 1971
Transferred to Royal Airways, 1974
Sold to London Heathrow, 1995
Sold to BLTB Aviation Holdings, 1996
Leased to Barbados Airlines, 1998
Returned to BLTB Aviation Holdings, 1998
Sold to Private Owner, 1999
Sold to Air Khalij, 1999
Stored at Bandar Abbas International Airport, 2006
Livery - Standard 1961
Country - Great Britain

In the early 70s, RIAC began to take delivery of early widebody aircraft types. This started with the 747-100, the first of which - G-ADSA, shown here - was delivered in 1971. This aircraft was inaugurated on the London to Miami route, and as more were delivered they began to operate to other key destinations, such as New York, Washington, Cairo, Tehran, Bahrain, Delhi, etcetera. It also became a staple of the daily 'Australia North' (London-Kolkata-Singapore-Sydney-Aukland) and 'Australia South' (London-Mumbai-Jakarta-Perth-Sydney) routes, which continued to be flown by 747-100s and -200s well into the 1990s. The 747-100s - in their original delivery setup - were configured with First and Tourist class seats, as well as upper deck and lower deck lounges. This particular aircraft flew with RIAC and the Royal Airways until 1995, when it was stored at Heathrow and soon sold to a holdings company. After a lease to a failed startup in Barbados fell through, a sale through an intermediary brough the aircraft to an Iranian airline, which operated it mostly on domestic flights before storing the plane in Bandar Abbas in 2006.

The second widebody type received by RIAC in the early 70s was the Lockheed L1011-1. Smaller and more efficient than the 747, the L1011 was perfectly suited to shorter but still high-demand routes, filling in the gap between the airline's 707s and VC10s and the much larger 747s. With its relatively short range, the L1011-1 was mostly used on European and North African routes, as well as some multi-stop flights into Asia. Later modifications of the L1011 (specifically, the -200 and -500) were used by RIAC's successor Royal Airways on longer routes.

While the safety record of L1011s in RIAC and Royal Airways service was, overall, quite good, there was an incident with a Royal Airways L1011-1, registered G-ADUH and operating flight 388 to Moscow Sheremetyevo on December 3rd, 1983. Several hours into the flight, the number one engine failed, causing an emergency landing to be made at a Soviet airbase near the city of Velikiy Novgorod. Suspected of making the flight plan deviation to spy on the USSR's military facilities in the area, the 55 passengers and 12 crew were not permitted to exit the aircraft, and spent twenty hours on board in -30˚C weather with no heating. After the British Foreign Ministry got involved the 67 people were allowed into a barracks building where they were given warm coats and fed, after which they were flown to Moscow on a Sovnaravia Il-62. G-ADUH remained at the airbase for three months while negotiations were carried out, after which Royal Airways and Lockheed engineers and technicians were allowed to fly in to repair and remove the aircraft.