Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture
More news on L-1011 N910TE III
TriStar Experience announced that their L-1011 N910TE is now airworthy but they need to raise funds for the upcoming test flight and for the subsequent ferry to Kansas City Airport:
L1011 Update. It looks like N910TE is now airworthy and ready to fly to KC. As with each plane thus far, it was more expensive than we anticipated to get her to this point. We're raising additional funds prior to putting her in the air. An extra $10,000 would help with test flight fuel and other costs. Thanks for your help. To donate visit: tristarexperience.org/donate
N140SC flew today in preparation for the CYGNSS launch
From Orbital's Twitter account:
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| N140SC © Orbital ATK |
Our L-1011 #Stargazer lands in VAFB to conduct check outs for the upcoming #Pegasus launch of @NASA's #CYGNSS satellite
According to SpaceFlight Now website, the launch is now scheduled to take place on Nov. 21.
- Twitter: Orbital ATK
More news on L-1011 N910TE II
It looks like the new date for the ferry flight of the L-1011 N910TE to Kansas City will be on October 12th.
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| N910TE © TriStar History and Preservation |
TriStar Experience have been working on this ex-Flying Hospital aircraft for some months now and they have a new dedicated L-1011 page on their website which replaced the previous one with information about N91011.
- TriStar Experience: N910TE
L-1011 Cargo Adventure
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| TT-DWE © Delta L-1011 website |
Delta L-1011 Retirement Website recently published a very interesting article with great photos about the adventure of flying a TriStar in its freighter role.
- Delta L-1011 Website: L-1011 Cargo Adventure
Number Two engine and 'S' duct explained by Lockheed
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| Number Two engine and 'S' duct |
The Number Two engine is installed in the aft fuselage. Like the wing engines it is a 50,000 pound thrust Rolls Royce Engine. Its inlet is a curved "S" duct which provides performance equivalent to that of a straight through duct,
(There is no performance penalty)
Aside from improved looks, there are several advantages to using an "S" duct. First, this lowers the #2 engine, which gives a low center engine thrust line. This reduces pitch up tendencies, and permits both wider lateral spacing of the wing engines, and a wider flap span.
The aft fuselage does not taper as much as other wide body aircraft because of #2 engine. This allows a longer fuselage constant section and more passenger room.
The lower engine allows for a one piece rudder which gives improved handling by increasing rudder effectivity.
Surprisingly, the "S" duct design also reduces aircraft weight. The engine is mounted in the aft fuselage. This eliminates the need for heavy structural supports (800 lbs.) which would otherwise be required, Those supports, if used, would reduce the passenger cabin by 65 square feet, or 11 seats.
TriStar History and Preservation has a new brand
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| TriStar Experience |
News from TriStar's Facebook page:
TriStar is officially re-branding from its legal name "TriStar History and Preservation, Inc." to our dba name "TriStar Experience". Its an important step to re-affirm we're not a museum. Rather TriStar is a unique organization that uses airworthy, iconic jet aircraft to inspire kids (ultimately of all ages) with hands-on experiential programs to pursue STEM fields of study and professions. As part of the rebranding our website is being redirected this week to the new URL (TriStarExperience.org) then rebuilt entirely. You can see here that our facebook name has already been changed. Both our twitter and Linkedin accounts / pages have been rebuilt. If you're interested in following us via those means (LinkedIn, twitter), please visit and sign up again.
TriStar Experience also released a new video showing a successful engine run performed on its recently acquired L-1011 with tail number N910TE.
More news on L-1011 N910TE
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| N910TE © TriStar History and Preservation |
An article published on the Kansas City Star Site reveals more about the intentions of TriStar History and Preservation on their recently acquired L-1011, the ex-Flying Hospital.
They expect to ferry this L-1011 from Tucson to Kansas City within two to three weeks and use it for their STEM educational project.
The integral airstairs that give access to the lower deck - one of the two aircraft delivered to PSA in this configuration - are a major advantage according to the sources.
About N91011, the ex-Portuguese L-1011, also owned by TriStar, we can find this reference:
TriStar History also owns the TWA Wings of Pride McDonnell Douglas MD-83, a British Aircraft Corp. One-Eleven and another L-1011 in California.
- The Kansas City Star: News Article and Interview
L-1011 customer codes by Lockheed
In a similar way to Boeing that used to identify the original customers of its aircraft by attributing a special code in the last two digits of a certain type's series, Lockheed used a prefix in the Serial Number.
It happened that certain airlines which operated both standard length and -500 TriStars, had two different codes, also marking that difference between the models.
TAP's customer code prefix was "293B-". TAP also operated two second-hand L-1011s originally intended for Air Canada that were not taken up by this airline. These two aircraft had the prefix "193H-" attributed to AC's -500 models, although their first operator was Royal Jordanian.
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| L-1011 customer codes table - click to enlarge |
For the complete serial numbers' list of the L-1011s registered in Portugal, please refer to the Aircraft page, in our website.
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.
Follow the link below.
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| Luzair L-1011 © Alex@Pas-Decals.ru |
- Pas-Decals: LOCKHEED L1011 TRI STAR