TriStar500.net Site: Photos

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An abandoned L-1011 on a beach

L-1011 in Cotonou © Matthew Klint/Live and Let's Fly

An L-1011 originally delivered to All Nippon Airways and last operated by Air Rum (msn 193P-1156) is sitting on a beach for some years now in Cotonou, Benin - West Africa.

One can find two interesting reports of this aircraft on the internet:

Live and Let's Fly: Onboard A Lockheed L-1011 TriStar In Cotonou, Benin
AirlineReporter: Exploring an Abandoned L1011 TriStar on a Beach in West Africa

N140SC with updated Northrop Grumman titles

N140SC © JetPhotos / xuxinyi1000

Hewa Bora Airways' TriStar 500 preserved

Along with other vintage aircraft, L-1011-500 9Q-CHC, was moved from Kinshasa N'Djili Airport - where it was stored for many years - to Parc de la Vallé de la Nsele.

9Q-CHC © An Van Den Poel

Some very cool pictures of the airframe can be seen following the link below:

Aviation24.be: Hewa Bora Airways’ Lockheed L-1011 TriStar – Parc de la Vallée de la Nsele

More underwater photos of Lockheed L-1011 CS-TMP

CS-TMP © Aqaba.jo

The ex-Luzair L-1011 TriStar is providing the opportunity for amazing photos underwater. You can find some of them on the link below as well as more information about its scuttling.

Aqaba Site: Dive a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Wreck

New livery for HZ-AHP

L-1011 193S-1190 (ex-Saudia) in permanent display at Royal Saudi Air Force Museum (Riyadh) was repainted in a new livery to promote the 88th Anniversary of the National Day in Saudi Arabia and also to promote the "Saudi Vision 2030" plan.

HZ-AHP © JetPhotos/AirlinerSpotter

Stargazer painted with Northrop Grumman titles

Stargazer © Airliners.net/Brad T

N910TE landed safely at KCI Airport

N910TE © Lee's Summit Tribune

The ferry flight was initially planned for last Friday (June 14) but a minor glitch in engine #2, detected after take-off, made the airplane return to Tucson International Airport.

Fortunately it seems the problem found was of easy repair and a second successful attempt was made the next day. During its cruise, the L-1011 reached a maximum altitude of 27.000 feet.

For such a complex aircraft that was in storage for over 15 years, we must give huge credit to TriStar Experience organization who made this possible.

Before landing at KCI - Kansas City Airport the L-1011 performed a beautiful low pass over the active runway.

Low pass:

Landing:

Water canon salute:

I almost forgot how beautiful a L-1011 is while in flight... Kudos to TriStar Experience for acquiring and preserving this historic airplane!

On a different note, Orbital's Stargazer was also active last Thursday, flying out of Mojave. Pegasus XL's ICON mission is now planned for November 14, according to Spaceflight Now.

AirlineReporter: The Rare Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Returns to the Skies Once More
Lee's Summit Tribune: TriStar’s N910TE L-1011 Jumbo Jet Has Landed at KCI

Exciting days ahead for Stargazer and N910TE

For those who love the L-1011, we are certainly living exciting days with another Pegasus launch scheduled for tomorrow and with the perspective of the ex-Flying Hospital being flown to Kansas City where it will be preserved.

The Stargazer and the ex-Flying Hospital are perhaps two of the most notorious L-1011s that were given unusual missions after their passenger service life and that survived until today.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center broadcasted yesterday a video about the upcoming Pegasus launch where they invited their viewers to get inside the Stargazer.

NASA Blogs: A Day of CYGNSS Activities

And also TriStar Experienced shared some photos on their Facebook of N910TE with new titles and acknowledgments applied on the fuselage while giving us the following information:

N910TE © TriStar Experience

With her name and acknowledgements applied, N910TE is one step closer to her ferry flight to KC. Once in KC, we start prepping her for kids STEM educational programs.

We expect to be back tomorrow, hopefully with news of another successful launch!

Stargazer being readied for its next launch

From Orbital ATK's Facebook:

Stargazer © Orbital ATK

Our Pegasus rocket, seen in the background of this image, is ready to mate with our Stargazer L-1011 aircraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for the December 12 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will launch NASA's 2-year Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission.

L-1011 walk-around photos

A nice set of photos of a walk-around session around the L-1011 msn 1189 (ex-N753DA) can be found on Pas-Decals website. Albeit with Luzair logos, this aircraft never made part of its fleet.
Follow the link below.

Luzair L-1011 © Alex@Pas-Decals.ru

Pas-Decals: LOCKHEED L1011 TRI STAR

TZ-MHI seen at Nairobi Jomo-Kenyatta Airport

L-1011 tail number TZ-MHI (msn 1221) was seen today abandoned at Nairobi airport. The airframe seems to be in a very sorry condition in such a way that, almost for sure, it will never make it into the skies again.

TZ-MHI@NBO © Nuno Carvalho

This L-1011 was originally delivered to TWA in 1981 and had a long life with several operators, being the last one SAM Intercontinental. It was one the of last remaining airworthy examples.

It visited Portugal during the UEFA Euro2004 tournament, carrying Greek supporters while operated by StarAir that later became StarJet.

Thanks to Nuno Carvalho for these rare photos!

Aerial photos of Al Alamain Intl

Thanks to our visitor David Fidler, we can see three L-1011s parked at Al Alamain Intl Airport (DBB/HEAL), in Egypt. The following photos were taken in August 2014, while overflying at 30.000+ feet:

The L-1011 on the top of the second photo is HR-AWM (msn 1229) which was supposed to operate for Rollins Air some years ago. The other two airframes with the blue "masks" and tails are TZ-SGI (msn 1237) and TZ-SPA (msn 1245) belonging to SAM Intercontinental.

Site update - new photo galleries

CS-TMP © Luís Machado

Thanks to visitor and contributor Luís Machado, TriStar500.net has now available four new galleries with amazing photos of CS-TEB (Photos 2), CS-TMP and CS-TMR (Photos 3) from unusual perspectives, and finally the end of line of CS-TMX (Photos 4 and 5) just before being scrapped in Lisbon:

To accommodate the new galleries, the website's structure was slightly altered. The global overview of the website can be seen in our Sitemap.

There's still a TriStar reaching for the Stars

Last Saturday (31 Oct), the L-1011 with tail number N140SC dubbed "Stargazer" was seen airborne between Phoenix Goodyear Airport and Mojave.

This was not a Pegasus launch mission - it was a flight for unknown operational reasons. Nevertheless it's always great to see the Stargazer in action with its new blue livery of Orbital ATK. Ain't she beautiful?

Stargazer turns blue

Following the recent merger of Orbital Sciences Coporation with Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Stargazer - the only active L-1011 left in the world - got a revised paint job that reflects the new corporate identity.

N140SC © Orbital ATK

At least two more launches of the Pegasus rocket are scheduled until 2017.

L-1011 maintenance & handling mishaps

This one ocurred in Amasterdam when CS-TMR (now N91011) was being readied for its ferry flight back to Lisbon after long term storage at Schiphol Airport.

CS-TMR@AMS - November 2006

Damaged elevator

Photos via Luzair

And another incident with CS-TMX at Havana .

CS-TMX@HAV - August 2005

Engine #3 nacelle

Photos via Linhadafrente.net

Portuguese TriStar fleet status 05/14

MSN 1206 euroAtlantic CS-TMX - scrapped at Lisbon (LIS)
MSN 1240 euroAtlantic CS-TEB - stored at Amman (ADJ)
MSN 1241 Luzair CS-TMR - under maintenance at Victorville (VCV); re-registered N91011
MSN 1248 Luzair CS-TMP - stored at Aqaba (AQJ)

The big news in this report is related to msn 1241 which was bought by TriStar History and Preservation, Inc from BES (a Portuguese bank that still owns CS-TMP). This change is already reflected on the FAA Registry website.
CS-TMR was re-registered N91011 in January of this year and maintenance works are under way for a ferry flight to Kansas City/MCI where the aircraft will be preserved and supposedly painted in TWA colors. Let us remember that this aircraft was one of the 5 original L-1011s delivered to TAP Air Portugal with customer code 293B and registration mark CS-TEC.
Progress of maintenance works can be witnessed at TriStar's Facebook page with videos of dry and wet engine runs.

On another note, also a few months ago, it seems that HR-AVN owners (an ex-Portuguese L-1011 / msn 1242) were seeking crew members for a ferry flight back to the Middle East - the aircraft is stored at Honduras/La Ceiba for several years now.

The L-1011 era is coming to an end soon

Royal Air Force

Yesterday, Royal Air Force retired one more L-1011 TriStar - ZE705 - on a ferry flight from Brize Norton to Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome. ZD953 and ZE704 should follow soon and in the end of March the three last TriStars are scheduled to be retired as well.

Las Vegas Sands

Repair works on Las Vegas Sand's N388LS were announced on March of 2013 but scrapping is now the most probable fate for this aircraft.

Sky Capital Airlines

L-1011 S2-AET - which was stored for a long time at Dhaka Airport - was finally scrapped last February.

This aircraft and the preparation of its ferry flight to Dhaka was featured on this Air Utopia's DVD.

Latest Pegasus launch

Orbital's L-1011 "Stargazer" made another successful launch of its Pegasus Rocket, last 27/06.

The rocket carried NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite.

You can read Orbital's press release about this launch here and see some mission photos here.

L-1011 @ Sheremetyevo

This is a very rare photo of TAAG's L-1011 at Sheremtyevo Airport, in Moscow. This aircraft was leased from TAP in the early 90s and kept its original registration CS-TEC.

In those days, this was a very demanding operation in Russia and Flight Crews were composed by TAP pilots and flight engineers.