The TriStar was an unfortunate product but a fantastic plane, it failed to achieve even break-even sales for Lockheed and put them out of the commercial airliner business forever. However, as an aircraft, it benefitted from technologically brilliant and spanking new design techniques and infrastructure at the new Lockheed facility and was the most advanced aircraft of its time. Even when one looks at the accident index of the plane, the record may be termed as brilliant. Most passengers recall the fantastic comfort and legroom that the L-1011 Tristar offered. Like I said above, the TriStar is unfortunate to be underrated and neglected even now, and the sight of a few old ones being literally reduced to trash in their desert storage locations would sadden any aviation enthusiast.

The only few Tristars still in service are with obscure and unheard of airlines or as a few military converted aircraft. A total of 250 TriStars were built till 1984. The TriStar's direct and main competitor, the DC-10 was commercially more successful, even though the TriStar was a sounder and safer design. The only intriguing fact about many TriStar accidents is the origin of a fire from the rear of the aircraft, including the one in the Saudi TriStar fire in Riyadh in 1980 where there were no survivors. Its competitor, the DC-10 was part of many more major and minor accidents, fatal and otherwise. All said and done the TriStar remains a truly magnificient flying jet that was both brilliant and distict from the run-of-the-mill, ubliquitous twin engined jets of today.

--Ashish

The time and cost overruns of the L-1011 Tri-Star compared to the DC-10 happened for a very good reason: it was a superior aircraft in nearly every way.

The race to produce the three-engine jumbos is well documented (along with McDonnell-Douglas's many short cuts) in Destination Disaster by the London Sunday Times Insight team. Among the details I remember: the L-1011's rear engine was faired into the fuselage/tailplane assembly in a far more sophisticated (and expensive) design than the DC-10's banjo construction, giving a larger vertical stablizer as well as a much more elegant profile; avionics and control systems had greater redundancy; and then there was the matter of that cargo door...

I've made many pleasant flights on Tri-Stars, with TWA and British Airways. It was one of those planes that inspire confidence. It felt solid and right. A tight ship.

On the other hand, my first transatlantic flight was made aboard a DC-10, when the catalogue of known design flaws, and consequent disasters, was still growing. In two decades of fairly frequent flying I've only had to repeat that experience on one other occasion, and that was Continental's last-ever DC-10 Atlantic crossing -- or so the stewardess told me. I wasn't sure how to take that news, as the ground crew took a hammer to close the door before pushing back.

--RudigerS

The airline I work for still flies the L-1011, but is in the process of parking them due to high "D" check costs. I not only work on these planes, but have flown on them quite a few times, and I can truthfully say they are a well-built aircraft, and are very smooth in the air considering their size. It is sad to see pictures of these once great airliners now sitting in pieces out in the desert.

--Anonymous

There are two things that I remember about the L-1011 big bird. First, I remember how unique the tail engine design was. it had an S shaped engine, that had a very high F.O.D. rating (foreign object damage) I also remember how distinct the anti-collision lights were under and on top of the airplane. There were two of them each side by side one another, above and below, and they flashed on and of. They didn't flash quickly like all the other airplanes did, but the flashing was slow. That's pretty cool.

--Astronoman_X

My sister and I took a flight from Atlanta GA to Puerto Rico on a Delta L-1011 back in 1993 and I have to say, the thing that really stuck me was the cool, retro Super70s interior. But that old bird was as smooth and quiet as some of the newer jets. After we touched down in Puerto Rico, I quizzed the pilots about the jet and all three of them agreed that it was a great airplane. Kinda sad when Delta retired all of them years later though.

--Turbofan

TriStars were a unique viewing treat at night - they were the ONLY airliner with TWO red anti-collision lights both on top of and under the fuselage (the Convair 990 had two on the bottom only). As if it wasn't enough, Pan Am's 500's had blinding synchronized strobes instead of the rotating type. Further, all three cargo doors had green indicator lights which were on when the doors were locked, power was on, and the plane was on the ground. What a light show!

--Louis Gonzalez

I have two memories of the L-1011. The first was the account of the famous crash in the Florida Everglades, and the subsequent book written about it titled (I think) "The Ghost of Flight 411." This may not be quite correct, but as I recall one of the pilots accidentally bumped the autopilot button on the steering yoke and unknowingly disengaged it. The plane slowly lost altitude and the pilots only discovered this just before it hit ground in the Everglades. A last second attempt to pull it up was unsuccessful. For whatever reason, this story and plane stuck in my mind.

Later, while in the Navy, in 1981 I was transferring duty stations to Orlando, Florida. After a leave, the last link of my trip was a hop from Atlanta to Orlando. It was a red eye flight on an L-1011. I was pretty interested in the flight because I recall the book mentioned above so was glad to actually fly the plane and see what it was like. To my surprise there were only about 6-8 passengers booked on the flight! There were, in fact, fewer passengers than flight attendants. I was sitting in the very rear row, and was the only passenger in that whole section of the plane. After getting in the air, the attendants came back and sat around me to chat. They said that even though that flight was typically a low-load run, that evening was exceptionally low--no one could recall so few passengers before. In a sense, it made it quite a memorable flight, with essentially the entire plane empty.

--Dennis

What a plane! Something about boarding a plane that has the "RR" Rolls Royce logo on the engines! L-1011's had a reputation for being smooth, and safe. Only one had crashed in the U.S. in the Super70s, an Eastern Airlines flight bound to Florida. One would crash at DFW airport in '85. As aircraft engines became more powerfull, the need for tri-engined aircraft diminished. Boeing's 757 and 767 aircraft could do the job, with less fuel, and crew required.

I last flew on one in 1999,on a Delta flight from Atlanta, and was amused to find that the interior had never been updated from when the plane first entered service w/Eastern Airlines. The last of the L-1011's was retired from regular U.S. airline service around 2001.

--JR

Delta had a fleet of them in the early 'Super70s and we loved flying in them. The DC-10s were close, but the L-1011 did everything right. The Boeing 747 looked big, is big, but the cabin layout feels cramped after several flying hours, whereas the L-1011 never did.

--Doug Willis

The first and last time I flew a Tri Star was from Denver to Portland Oregon around Thanksgiving of 1995. The aircraft was owned by Delta, and what really struck me was the number of bathrooms available in the rear of the plane. If I remember correctly, there was no galley back there, so passengers had the run of a small hallway that connected the doors to four or five bathrooms that curved around the rear of the aircraft. The lack of a galley, and the subsequent collisions that come with having crew and passengers share such a crowded area had been removed. Great idea. Too bad that there are no longer any L1011's in scheduled service in the US.

--Curt

There are infact a total of nine Lockeed 1011-500's in service with the UK airforce. Five former British airways examples and a further four from the now defunct Pan-Am. They are used in the air to air refuelling role and as a large transport aircraft.

--Anonymous

In 1992 I flew on a Caledonian Airways L1011 from Manchester, UK to Orlando. The carpet was fraying, there were odd coloured seats mixed in with the regular ones, there was paint flaking off of the radome, the movie screen's protective cover kept falling off and the ceiling fascia wouldn't stay on the ceiling. Despite all of this, something about that aeroplane felt safe and well built. We landed at Bangor, Maine to refuel and as we were about to take off again, I could see the awesome power of the Rolls Royce RB211 engine sucking up puddles of rainwater from the runway. . . with the engine at idle! I live in the city of Derby, UK, where the RB211 was built and have met a lot of engineers that worked on the engine and they seemed proud of it.

--Anonymous

I was 10 years old when I first stepped onto this huge aircraft. I can remember looking out the window seat at all the taxi and runway lights as this was not only my first flight ever, but a night op to boot. I remember the over all size and power of the aircraft that had me in complete amazement as I looked around at all the seats and how they seemed to go on and on like a never ending hall way in those horror movies. Mid-flight a flight attendent came up to me and asked if I would like to see the cockpit and I could not get out of my seat fast enough to go visit. The pilots were the most amazing people I had ever met in my short life. They showed my some of the insturments in this monster of a cockpit. The FO leaned over and put a pair of plastic wings on my shirt as I was getting ready to return to my seat. That was the most triumphant 80 feet of marching I have done. It ended it what seemed minutes even though the flight was a good three hours or so.

This plane, the crew as well as the overall trip is why I am a pilot today. I will never forget that plane, the pilots, or the innocence of the time. My only regret is that due to the fact of some cowards and their foolishness, I can not share this experience with anyone else unless I put it in a short story. Thank you for reading my story and I hope this aircraft has touched others in this fashion as well.

--chevy pilot

I first flew on an L-1011 Tristar in August 1973 between Boston and San Francisco that belonged to Eastern Airlines but was leased to TWA. Both airlines had an exchange program, flying each other's equipment back during the early Super70s. This is a remarkable aircraft and the most comfortable of the widebodied trijets, and certainly more comfortable than the DC-10. The fuselage is roughly a foot wider than its Douglas counterpart but shorter. All Tristars are powered by three Rolls Royce RB-211 engines that are exceptionally quiet. They are, however, extremely noisy and sometime smoke up during engine start, sounding like a deep-voiced man exhaling a throaty 'ahhhh' that vibrate the cabin and, in some cases, airport terminal windows. TWA and Delta were the main U. S. operators of L-1011 Tristars. The latter was the last major U. S. carrier to fly them. Though the second widebodied jet to enter service behind the Boeing 747, the Tristar fell behind the DC-10 in production from the very beginning when Rolls Royce went on strike - a major setback for Lockheed. Today, very few are flying with major air carriers throughout the world. Sadly, Tristar production ceased the moment Lockheed decided to bow out of the passenger aircraft industry and proceed in other ventures such as the defense industry. Long live the Tristar!"

--Harald A.