It's been a VERY long time since I've build any sort of aircraft. Most of my modeling has concentrated on Class 8 trucks. Anyway, I purchased this Airfix Lockheed L-1011 kit back in 1994 while I was stationed at Ft. Polk, LA; but I never really had any plan for it. Several months ago, I saw the Ancient Airfix II Campaign here on AeroScale (thank you, Jessica); and I figured that this "ancient Airfix" kit would fit right in. (I did post this in thr Ancient Airfix II Campaign thread, but I figured that many of you wouldn';t see it there.) The British Airways decals in the kit were toast (that's them curled up by the wing on the left), so I had to find something else.



Then I remembered Flight 401.



For those of you who are not familiar with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from New York-JFK to Maimi International on December 29, 1972, it was the first wide-body airliner crash in US history when it crashed into the Everglades in final approach to Miami International. Growing up in Miami in the 1970s & 1980s; I think everybody knew about Flight 401. Here is the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_401

Well, anyway, back to the build. All I needed was the Eastern Airlines decals, and TwoSix had them!



So, here it is. My "tribute" to Eastern Airlines Flight 401:





It's not perfect, but it's close.

Thanks for looking,
Jim

Kewl, I followed this on AAA2 but I missed the flight 401 connection till now. Nice finish, the old Eastern schemes were kinda neat, till someone realized it cost fuel to have a nice paint job.

Thanks, Mark.

True, you could save 200-300 pounds by not painting the aircraft; and I liked Eastern's silver scheme, too. By looking at the fleets today it looks like color & graphics are the thing to do.

Jim

James,
What an impressive build. Outstanding painting and suburb decaling.

Eastern Airlines was a personal favorite that my family flew on for years. Love the paint scheme.

Joel

Thanks, Joel. My family flew Eastern Airlines a lot, too.

Jim

Speaking of things Eastern, this may be of interest to you.

You know, I think I remember hearing something long those lines before. I didn't realize that Eastern was supposed to start flying again this year.

Jim