Lockheed introduced the L-1011 after the competition
between airplane manufacturers took on a new age: the wide body jet.
Plans and contracts for the L-1011 were made long before McDonnel-Douglas
introduced the DC-10 but the DC-10 was introduced onto the market earlier
because of delays in the Tristar creation. 1970 was the first year
with L-1011s in service. The DC-10 is another plane of roughly the
same size as the L-1011, but it has more passenger room in the cabin due
to the mounting of its tail engine. Over 249 L-1011s were sold and
four different models were built (see below). The Tristar can hold
400 seats or 57 tons of cargo. The Tristar was discontinued in 1982
due to demand and the DC-10 became the winner of the competition.
There are still many L-1011s in service, however, and its safety record
is far superior to that of the DC-10. (I have included a list of
accidents in the L1011s history.) American
Trans Air purchases their L-1011s from other airlines, which is the explanation
of the different color schemes.
The -365 and -385 designators were used to identify
the respective MGTOW of these aircraft, however, the -385-1 had a MGTOW
of 409,000 lbs. The -100 series was designed with 2 extra fuel tanks in
the fuselage; 13 were built and 23 -1's were modified to -100's. Other
-1's were modified to -50's, -150's and -250's thereby increasing their
range. The -50 featured stronger landing gear and tires for a slightly
higher weight. The -200 series was designed primarily for hot or high use
and increased range of which 24 were made and 14 others converted to -200
status. The -250 (heaviest at 510,000 lbs.) is a hybrid of a -200 (fuselage)
and -500 (increased thrust engines) of which Delta was the first operator.
The -500 (50 built) was the long-range version of which Delta was also
the first U.S. customer. In May of 1972 an L1011 made the first fully automatic
U.S. coast-to-coast flight. A total of 250 units were produced.
***(If I am incorrect about any of this info or you know of something
else I should add please let
me know!)***
I have created a page dealing with my trip
on an ATA L-1011 to Cancun, Mexico. I took video of the trip and
have included some snapshots from inside the plane.
Below is a Quick Time video of a rocket launch off of a Tristar.
This plane is owned by a company called Orbital
that sends satellites into orbit using small rockets. The image gallery
contains more photos of their L-1011 and the rockets. (Video is Approx.
1.9 MB)
The retirement of TWA’s L1011s came on September 3, 1997. The final
flight was TW840 from LAX to JFK. After landing on Runway 31R at 1604,
aircraft N11006 received a water cannon salute from Port Authority fire-fighting
vehicles as it turned off taxiway Bravo onto taxiway Delta Alpha. The aircraft
parked at Terminal 5 and TWA’s Lockheed era came to an end. Click
on the image for a bigger view.
Click Here to visit
my image gallery of all the images of the Tristar I have collected
so far.
Tristar Seating Variations I have recieved requests for the seating maps in L-1011s so I have
put some images on of seating arrangements from different airlines.
Click the image for the map.
Air Transat
This airline does not have a seating chart availabe but they operate two
kinds of L-1011s and their website is worth checking out. Images
of their types: L-1011-150, L-1011-500
This airline does not have a seating chart availabe but they operate two
kinds of L-1011s and their website is worth checking out. Images
of their types: L-1011-150, L-1011-500
Delta
has the L-1011-1, L-1011-250,
and L-1011-500
