Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Gulf Air

Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 200 (L-1011-385-1-15) - Gulf Air (Bahrain) - A40-TV (MSN 193A-1056) - Frankfurt Rhein/Main Airport (FRA) - 1990s.

For Gulf Air, today the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Lockheed TriStar was the first widebody aircraft type in the fleet. The airline operated thirteen L-1011s (-1, -100 and -200 versions). The TriStars were painted in a striking livery.

The airline started in the 1940s as an air taxi service from Bahrain to Doha and Dhahran and in 1950 it was named 'Gulf Aviation'. In 1973 it became the national airline of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar and was consequently renamed 'Gulf Air'. The state of Qatar withdrew from Gulf Air in 2002, because it wanted to support its own airline, Qatar Airways, and in 2005 Abu Dhabi announced that it also wanted to pull out in favour of its own Etihad Airways. In 2007 Oman also withdrew, so that Gulf Air is now the flag carrier of Bahrain only.

Lockheed delivered MSN 193A-1056 as a TriStar 1 to Eastern Airlines in December 1973 as N328EA. In December 1976, the aircraft was taken over by Cathay Pacific as VR-HHG. The Hong Kong airline converted the aircraft from L-1011-01 to L-1011-100. In August 1980 it joined the fleet of Gulf Air as A40-TV and it was converted it to L-1011-200 standard in 1982. Gulf Air withdrew the aircraft from service in 1992.

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