Aviation News - TriStar Tribute

Latest issue of Aviation News magazine brings us two articles about the TriStar: 

- TriStars of the RAF

- TriStar - Lockheed's Airliner Swansong

Aviation News - March 2014

Although this edition seems to be out of stock, its digital version is still available for those who have smartphones or tablets.

The L-1011 era is coming to an end soon

Royal Air Force

TriStar - an era coming to an end © 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.

S2-AET scrapped © Shabbir Bashar

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

RAF - another TriStar is withdrawn from service

TriStar © Royal Air Force

For 30 years the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar has played a pivotal role within the RAF. Bought after the Falklands War to bolster the RAF’s capability, the TriStar became a familiar sight. Now, the retirement of the TriStar, from RAF Service, has begun with delivery of ZD952 to the Cotswold Airport, Kemble, for disposal.

• News: RAF Brize Norton

ZE706 retirement

Royal Air Force started the phase-out of its TriStar fleet with the first example being the one with ZE706 registration number. This aircraft was ferried today from Brize Norton to Cambridge airport.

ZE706 is an ex-Pan Am aircraft which was not converted into a three-point tanker and was used as a passenger transport aircraft, a version designated C2A.

RAF's fleet is now down to 7 aircraft - ZD949 was unexpectedly withdrawn from service earlier after being retrofitted with a glass cockpit which did not go ahead.

• RAF's page about the TriStar: Here

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.

Stargazer © Orbital Sciences Corporation

Pegasus © Orbital Sciences Corporation

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

Royal Flypast

One of the RAF's TriStars was seen performing in the flypast during the celebrations of the Queen's official birthday.

TriStar and VC-10 © UK Crown

Thirty seconds later the RAF’s longest serving aircraft, 216 & 101 Squadrons’ Tristar & VC-10, passed over Buckingham palace. These venerable aircraft are another foundation on which the RAF’s Strategic Global Air Mobility capability depends. Both aircraft will though in due course be replaced by Voyager, which followed seconds behind the older aircraft.

• Read the complete article about the flypast: 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.

CS-TEC at SVO © Por Dentro

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

"Un hommage sous FS X"

The latest issue of french magazine Micro Simulateur brings us an overview of the new Just Flight's L-1011 TriStar 500 for Microsoft Flight Simulator FS X.

The article is written in french and it seems to be pretty interesting for those who enjoy flight simulation.

Las Vegas Sands' L-1011 to be repaired?

L-1011-500 N388LS is in AOG condition at Don Muang Airport since November of 2011, when severe flooding occurred in Bangkok.

According to the information posted in this Facebook Group "Lockheed L-1011 TriStar", repair works have now started to put this aircraft back in the air.

Las Vegas Sands - an american casino and resort operating company - tried to ferry N388LS out of Bangkok last year but the special flight permit was denied according to this document which also describes the tasks that have to be carried out before that flight permit can be issued.

It would be awesome to see this bird with such a stunning livery flying again.

RAF ends refuelling operations in the Middle East

End of RAF Refuelling Detachment

TriStar Tanker © RAF/MOD Crown

A Royal Air Force Tristar departs 902 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) and brings the curtain down on the RAFs Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) detachment in the Middle East.

There has been an almost continuous RAF refuelling presence in the region for 23 years, operated by 101 Squadron VC10s and 216 Squadron Tristars. The aircraft and crews from RAF Brize Norton have been providing AAR since Operation Granby commenced in August 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

• Read the complete article: Here