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RAF's fleet is now down to 7 aircraft - ZD949 was unexpectedly withdrawn from service earlier after being retrofitted with a glass cockpit which did not go ahead.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