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Old Mar 20, 2000 | 2:43 am
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Robert Leach
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Never saw one in person, but have seen a couple of pictures. Delta owned about five of them back in the 70's, then sold them. About three months after the last one had been sold, Delta was granted route authority to serve London from Atlanta, its first transoceanic international route -- and because they had just dumped the 747's they didn't have a plane in the fleet that would make the trip! So, as the story goes, Delta had to lease a couple of international range L-1011s from TWA on short notice at a steep price. To me, this is just one in a long history of misjudging fleet requirements (such as Delta's current paltry usage of the 777 while United is buying scores of them, when it's clear the 777 is rapidly becoming the preferred international aircraft).
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