Lockheed L-1011

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The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was the third widebody passenger jet airliner to enter operation, following the Boeing 747 and the Douglas DC-10. Between 1968 and 1984, Lockheed manufactured a total of 250 TriStars, many of which remain in service with charter airlines. In addition, the Royal Air Force continues to operate nine TriStars acquired in the 1980s.

Though the TriStar performed successfully in the airlines, it turned out to be an economic disaster for Lockheed

1 Development
- 1.1 First flight
2 Scandal
3 Commercial operation
4 Military service
5 Trivia
- 5.1 In popular culture
6 Operators
7 Variants
8 Specifications
9 See also
10 References

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Development

Image:L-1011 3view.png

In the 1960s, American Airlines approached Lockheed and competitor Douglas with a need for an aircraft smaller than the existing 747, but still capable of flying to distant locales such as London and Latin America from company hubs in Dallas/Ft Worth and New York. Lockheed's response was the L-1011 TriStar. The design featured a twin-aisle interior, low noise emissions, improved reliability, and efficient operation. American Airlines opted instead for the Douglas DC-10, although it had shown considerable interest in the L-1011. American's actual intent in doing so was actually to convince Douglas to lower its price for the DC-10, which it didTemplate:Ref.

Without the support of American, the TriStar was launched on orders from TWA and Eastern Airlines. Although the TriStar's design schedule closely followed that of its fierce competitor, the DC-10, Douglas beat Lockheed to market by a year due to delays in powerplant development. Rolls-Royce, the maker of the TriStar's RB211 turbofan engines, had filed for bankruptcy, halting L-1011 final assembly. The British government did not approve the large state subsidy used to restart Rolls-Royce operations until after the US government had guaranteed the Lockheed loans previously provided to Rolls-Royce for the extensive engine contract.

Designed for a maximum seating of 400 passengers, the TriStar utilized a new engine layout: in addition to Rolls-Royce turbofan jet engines on each wing, a third engine was located dorsally below the vertical stabilizer. Manufactured in Lockheed facilities in Palmdale, California, the TriStar faced brisk competition with the Boeing 747 and, even more directly, the Douglas (later McDonnell Douglas) DC-10/MD-10, which it closely resembled. The TriStar had a better safety record than the DC-10, and Trans World Airlines heralded the TriStar as one of the safest airplanes in the world in some of its promotional literature in the 1980s when concern over the safety record of the DC-10, which was flown by most of its competitors, was at its peak. However, the DC-10 outsold the TriStar nearly two to one, partly because of the TriStar's delayed introduction.

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First flight

The prototype first flew on November 16, 1970. The crew for that flight was H. B. Dees (pilot), R. C. Cokeley (copilot), and G. E. Fisher (development engineer).

The first TriStar was finally delivered to Eastern Airlines on April 26, 1972.

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Scandal

Lockheed bribed the Japanese government to subsidize ANA's purchase of L-1011s. The resulting political scandal led to the arrest of Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei. Within Lockheed, board chairman Daniel Haughton and vice chairman and president Carl Kotchian resigned from their posts on February 13, 1976.

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Commercial operation

A number of airlines flew the TriStar, including Air France, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Delta Air Lines (the type's largest customer), Eastern Airlines, Pan Am, and Saudi Arabian Airlines. Cathay Pacific eventually became the largest non-US operator of the type by acquiring many of the Eastern Airlines examples when Eastern Airlines went bankrupt, operating as many as 21 aircraft. Cathay Pacific retired its L-1011 fleet in October 1996, replacing the fleet with Airbus A330-300. TWA withdrew its last TriStar from service in 1997. The aircraft's largest operator, Delta Air Lines, retired its TriStar fleet in 2001, replacing them with the Boeing 767-400ER. Thai Sky Airlines began service in 2004 with a fleet of three TriStars.

Lockheed needed to sell 500 planes to break even. Failing to achieve profitability in the civilian airliner sector, the TriStar was Lockheed's last commercial aircraft. American Airlines had played Douglas and Lockheed off each other, driving the prices of both planes down, and the end result was Douglas' merger with McDonnell and Lockheed's departure from the commercial aircraft business.

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Military service

Image:Lockheed.tristar.flying.arp.jpg The TriStar has also been used as a military tanker and cargo aircraft. The Royal Air Force has nine aircraft of four variants. The aircraft are ex-British Airways and Pan Am L-1011-500s. Two of the aircraft are designated TriStar K.MK 1s and are pure tankers. Another four are KC1s and can be either tankers or cargo aircraft. The two TriStar C.Mk 2 models and the solitary TriStar C. Mk 2A are pure cargo aircraft. The C2A differs from the C2 by having military avionics and radios. The RAF's TriStars were bought in the immediate aftermath of the Falklands War to bolster the long range capability of the RAF in the transport and tanker roles. All of the aircraft serve with No. 216 Squadron, based at RAF Brize Norton.

The aircraft have seen service in many recent conflicts. Two were deployed to King Khalid International Airport, near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War as tankers, with the rest used for transport between the Persian Gulf and UK. The two aircraft deployed received nose art naming them Pinky and Perky. During the 1999 Kosovo War, TriStars deployed to Ancona in Italy, again as tankers, with four aircraft involved. TriStars joined VC-10s in the AAR role for Operation Veritas (Afghanistan,) during which they provided aerial-refueling for US Navy aircraft. Their most recent wartime role was again over the skies of Iraq. The RAF deployed four TriStars during Operation Telic, to an as-yet-undisclosed location.

The TriStar is expected to remain in service with the RAF until the end of this decade, when it is scheduled to be replaced by the Airbus A330 MRTT under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) programme. The Airtanker consortium, lead by EADS, won the FSTA contract in January 2004. However beginning in April 2004 there have been continuing rumours about the fragile state of the contract negotiations. This culminated in an ultimatium by the UK's Defence Procurement Agency, delivered to EADS, demanding a reduced price for the aircraft. With continuing doubts over the FSTA programme Marshall Aerospace, responsible for the conversion of the RAF's original TriStars, have offered to buy and convert some of the large number of surplus commercial TriStars. This would give the UK a much needed increase in capacity (with the upcoming retirement of the VC-10 fleet) at a fraction of the cost of the £13Bn FSTA project.

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Trivia

The L-1011 TriStar's internal Lockheed model number is actually L-093.
In the early 1970's, Eastern Airlines nicknamed the L-1011 TriStar "The Whisperliner".
The L-1011 was the first widebody to receive FAA certification for Cat-IIIc autolanding, which approved the TriStar for completely blind landings in zero-visibility weather. In theory it could even taxi to the gate in zero visibility if the airport was properly equipped.
In the early 1990s, Orbital Sciences began to use a converted L-1011-100 named Stargazer to launch Pegasus rockets into orbit around Earth. This venture effectively rendered the small Scout rocket obsolete. [1] [2] This aircraft was also used in support of the X-34 program.
NASA performed aerodynamic research on Orbital Science's L-1011 in 1995. [3]

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In popular culture

An L-1011 was featured prominently in the 1992 motion picture Passenger 57.
In the ABC television series Lost, the set of the crashed plane consisted of a retired L-1011 which had been cut apart to resemble airline wreckage.

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Operators

Civilian operators of the Tristar included:

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Variants

A longer-range variant of the standard-length L-1011 was first flight tested in 1978. Designated the L-1011-500, the fuselage length was shortened by 14 feet (4.3 m) to accommodate higher fuel loads.

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Specifications

	L-1011-1	L-1011-200	L-1011-500
Description
Type	widebody jet airliner
Passengers	273	304	244
First flight	November 16, 1970		October 16, 1978
Manufacturer	Lockheed Corporation
Dimensions
Length	177 ft 8 in (54.2 m)	177 ft 8 in (54.2 m)	164 ft 2 in (50.0 m)
Wingspan	155 ft 4 in (47.3 m)	155 ft 4 in (47.3 m)	164 ft 4 in (50.1 m)
Tailspan	71 ft 7 in (21.8 m)	71 ft 7 in (21.8 m)	71 ft 7 in (21.8 m)
Height	55 ft 4 in (16.7 m)	55 ft 4 in (16.7 m)	55 ft 4 in (16.7 m)
Wing area	3456 ft² (321.1 m²)	3456 ft² (321.1 m²)	3541 ft² (329.0 m²)
Weights
Empty weight	224,579 lb (101,867 kg)	231,600 lb (105,052 kg)	232,749 lb (105,573 kg)
Max. takeoff weight	430,000 lb (195,000 kg)	466,000 lb (209,000 kg)	496,000 lb (225,000 kg)
Max. payload	84,393 lb (38,280 kg)	89,400 lb (40,551 kg)	89,718 lb (40,695 kg)
Powerplant
Engine	Three Rolls-Royce RB.211-22 B	Three Rolls-Royce RB.211-524B	Three Rolls-Royce RB.211-524B
Thrust	42,000 lbf (187,000 kg)	50,000 lbf (220,000 kg)	50,000 lbf (220,000 kg)
Performance
Cruise speed	495 mph (796 km/h)	484 mph (779 km/h)	484 mph (779 km/h)
Range	4,610 mi (7,419 km)	4,610 mi (7,419 km)	6,340 mi (10,200 km)
Cruise altitude	33,650 ft (10,260 m)	34,000 ft (10,360 m)	33,000 ft (10,060 m)
Service ceiling	35,000 ft (10,670 m)	36,000 ft (10,970 m)	35,000 ft (10,670 m)