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Where do the oxgen masks in the L1011s come from? On the safety cards they apear to drop from above but I cant see anywhere on the ceiling they might come out of. Do they drop out of the backs of the seats like on the IL86 and DC10s or what?

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Photo © Justin Cederholm

They drop from the ceilings above the seats. There are narrow panels between sets of reading lights above the center seats. Along the 2 seater side they fall from a compartment above the seats.

The masks drop out of compartments which are hidden in those strips running down the cabin - the reading lights are up there as well. That's a long drop for those masks, now that I think of it.

When I flew on BA TriStars - the cabins all had centre overhead lockers... so no different from other aircraft

yeah...it must take a lot of tubing to stretch to the seats. Does anyone know exactly how tall the celing is on the L-1011? I think 747 has 8 foot celings, but this looks taller- or is it only an illusion?

The ceiling height on the L10 is probably about the same as the 747, but with the Boeing the oxygen came from compartments in the luggage racks (even in the center area) so I suppose the drop was less.

They come out from between the reading lights? Those are reading lights!? You'd need a step ladder to switch them on or adjust them surely!

Switches for the reading lights were in the armrests.
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Photo © Robert L. Bradley

Yak42, imagine trying to reach up and adjust the air vents (yup, they're up there as well). TWA had something called a 'magic wand' which was basically a long pole that the f/a's could use if a passenger wanted them adjusted. The L10 cabin was attractive, but not very practical.

As a followup to my previous post, the amount of air was adjusted via a switch in the seat, but the direction of air flow required the 'magic wand'.

in one of the photos, it looks like the L-1011 used a movie projector to show movies. How are the film reels changed? would a ladder be used to reach the projector?

in one of the photos, it looks like the L-1011 used a movie projector to show movies. How are the film reels changed? would a ladder be used to reach the projector?

In the Eastern L-1011 above, projectors were mounted in A,C and D zones. They were hinged from the ceiling and films were easily changed by standing on the seats. The films came in a plastic cartridge which were about three feet in diameter. Originally, the films were shown in a "widescreen" format, but this was later changed on some airplanes (you can see the black bars on the movie screen).

Eastern was in the middle of a projector swapout when they went bankrupt in 1991. Of the ten L-1011's that Delta bought from Eastern, only one airplane (N302EA) had new style video projectors. The other airplanes had the reel film "the Presidio" (1988) still installed in the projectors.

thanks DL_Mech! I've been wondering about that for the longest time

sorry one more question, what is the A,C, and D zone? is that the section of the celing without the recessed lighting panels?

How many Delta L1011's were configured with no center overhead bins? I couldn't even imagine getting on a full L1011 with no center bins. There is barely enough room on any full widebody a/c for everyone's carry-ons.

weren't the early models equipped with the partition in the center section of seats?(that doubled as a coat closet) I wonder if that held any luggage and helped alleviate the lack of overhead center bins?

I personally think the partitons look cool and unique....

what is the A,C, and D zone?

A zone is First Class
B zone is the first group of seats after First
C zone is the largest group of coach seats
D zone is in front of the lavs in the back.

How many Delta L1011's were configured with no center overhead bins?

I think 701-728. 729-741 and 751-769 (dash 500's) all had them.

weren't the early models equipped with the partition in the center section of seats?

Only some airlines did. I believe that EAL and DAL had them, while TWA only had wider coach seats.