Source: Airliners.net Forum
L-1011 retirement video (Air Transat)
Site update - new photo galleries
 |
| CS-TMP © Luís Machado |
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?
An article from AirlineReporter
It was published by AirlineReporter a comprehensive article about the L-1011 and what made this aircraft so unique.
This article starts with a brief description of the historical context of the time where the L-1011 developed and the goal of Lockheed of designing a product that made the difference by employing advanced technology and unique features.
Then it proceeds with the inputs of the airlines on the L-1011 and with special cabin details that made the TriStar a pleasurable aircraft for the passengers.
It even includes the proposed self-dimming windows (a concept very similar to what we find today on the Boeing 787) that unfortunately did not make it into production aircraft:
 |
| Self-dimming windows © AirlineReporter/Lockheed |
Another interesting curiosity revealed was that the L-1011 flight deck was proposed in three different colours to the operators: grey, blue and olive. TAP's original L-1011s were delivered with their flight decks in tones of blue.
Finally, the article tells about the remarkable TriStar's AFCS, whose systems are also described in this website's Specialties page.
- AirlineReporter: Requiem For a Trijet Masterpiece - The Lockheed L-1011
TAP TV Commercials in the 80s
With the renewal of the fleet in the early 80s and with the arrival of the first L-1011s, TAP advertised its new product in a typical Portuguese way. The L-1011 is the aircraft shown in these adverts, being presented as a "race horse". In the last advert we can also see a nice view of the original Economy Class interior. This is a sequence of three TV commercials by TAP:
LTU L-1011 video footage
It was recently made available on YouTube a footage about a Düsseldorf-Fuerteventura flight on a LTU L-1011 that shows what a charter flight looked like in the 80s.
Video uploaded by Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture
AGD Systems takes six TriStars from RAF
Defense Contractor AGD Systems announced recently that it will operate six ex-Royal Air Force TriStars which will return to civilian operation (these aircraft once belonged to British Airways and Pan Am) and will be available for military contracts.
The six aircraft have already the following N-numbers assigned:
- msn 193V-1157 | N304CS
- msn 193V-1164 | N405CS
- msn 193V-1165 | N309CS
- msn 193V-1174 | N705CS
- msn 193Y-1186 | N507CS
- msn 193Y-1188 | N703CS
Ex-British Airways examples (193V) are air-to-air refueling capable while the two ex-Pan Am (193Y) are in ordinary passenger configuration. These aircraft are intended to be deployed on the very same missions they performed for RAF such as "refueling, cargo, personnel and medivac missions globally".
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.
At least two more launches of the Pegasus rocket are scheduled until 2017.
 |
| N140SC © Orbital ATK |