Hobby Master Archive

1929 saw what was to become the birth of Eastern Air Lines when Clement Keys purchased Pitcairn Aviation. Next it became Eastern Air Transport and later Eastern Air Lines. In 1959 Eastern became the first air line to fly the new Lockheed L-188 Electra. Eastern offered an “all first-class service” with the aircraft wearing the famous “Golden Falcon” paint scheme. The two-tone blue Eastern emblem represented the fact they flew both day and night. Eastern was the last major US carrier to operate the Electras retiring them in 1977 after carrying an estimated 27,000,000 passengers.