L1011, is it just me or..........

[peaktorque]

........is this still the best sounding, best looking commercial plane ever?
(Concorde aside that is)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJWFcpy_kk&feat...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hp-vHRQ08fU&feat...

I'm sure I flew on one once

[TimJMS]

No. Me as well. The RB211 is rather singular on full throttle.

[peaktorque]

Still flying, doing the odd charter flight in Portugal apparently.

[mogul]

I first flew in these in the early 80's (to and from Saudi) and they are a great aeroplane. I remember seeing a burnt out one left on the runway at Riyad Int' Airport as a result of a fire started by a passenger having a cup of tea using a Calor Gas burner in the cabin. Lots of people lost their lives and it was a bit of a mess....

They have a really distinctive sound on take off which as far as I can remember is unique to the Tristar (must be the engines?). I was coming back from Spain about 4 years ago and our BA flight was cancelled which was then transferred to an Iceland Air flight to cover - a L1011 which was a real blast from the past!

Against the DC10, it was head and shoulders above it and a really lovely plane to fly in

I'm sure there are some still in the air but are running out of air time (Eric will confirm I'm sure!).

[mdotrutherford]

peaktorque said:

Still flying, doing the odd charter flight in Portugal apparently.

........and in defence of the realm, lest we forget

[anonymous-user]

Nope....Next to Concorde comes this.

Vickers finest

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dCRMZuwalTA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7MzheZGITYQ

Check out the noise on this one.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds0H77SBgzA

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 17th May 21:53

[mogul]

mdotrutherford said:

peaktorque said:

Still flying, doing the odd charter flight in Portugal apparently.

........and in defence of the realm, lest we forget

Forgotten about those - are they still used as both tankers and passenger?

[mdotrutherford]

Yeah in both forms http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/tristar.cfm

Worked the -500's when they were with BA - great crack sliding down the #2 intake chute on your arse !

[mogul]

mdotrutherford said:

Yeah in both forms http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/tristar.cfm

Worked the -500's when they were with BA - great crack sliding down the #2 intake chute on your arse !

I'm pretty sure BA used 500's on the Saudi run.

Good to see they are still going strong!

[S7Paul]

I went to Cyprus in 2005, and was delayed on the way out due to the My Travel aircraft going u/s. However, despite the delay, I was pleased when I heard that we'd be going on a Tristar instead. I'd never flown on one, and with so few in service now, had assumed that I never would. It was great flight, fast quiet and comfortable, and with an A320's worth of passengers on board, there were loads of empty seats. If the old adage that if it looks right, it is right really held true, it would have been the Tristar that succeeded, not the DC-10/MD-11. However, I would still agree with a previous poster that it would come below the VC-10 in the best looking airliner list. The 727 would probably be in the top 5 too.

ETA: The Tristar I flew on was a sister aircraft to the one in the first video above, operated by Euro Atlantic Airways.

Edited by S7Paul on Saturday 17th May 23:18

[s2art]

VC10 for me.

[16VJay]

Will always have a soft spot for TriStars as back in 1985 I spent a couple of months as a flight test observer on the acceptance trials of the first of the RAF tanker conversions at Boscombe Down.

I was doing my student placement at Boscombe and ended up doing about 10 flights over a couple of months monitoring systems and taking the pilot's comments while we carried out various manoevres - including dropping out of the sky a few times when we checked stall speeds!!

As I remember it took about a mile (vertically) before we recovered from the stall.....

Jeremy.

[glazbagun]

Someone beat me to the VC-10, but Tristars are right up there!

[mogul]

Now I used to fly in VC10's to Iran in the mid 70's and they are a lovely airplane!

Very quiet at the front and built and designed in the UK and just like the proverbial brick st house! I seem to remember they were nicknamed 'The whispering Giant' from memory as they were rather noisy from the outside

Strange and sad to think all those years ago aged 11+ I was travelling around the world alone back and forth from school, where as today I wouldn't let my children play out of earshot from me......

[Pesty]

not sure what it was called possibly de havaland commet? the first jet passenger plane think it had square windows

had a few crashes due to rivets or someting. anyway I always thought it looked a gorgeous plane, loved the way the engines looked in the wings(how sad is that) The plane just looked right

[mogul]

Pesty said:

not sure what it was called possibly de havaland commet? the first jet passenger plane think it had square windows

had a few crashes due to rivets or someting. anyway I always thought it looked a gorgeous plane, loved the way the engines looked in the wings(how sad is that) The plane just looked right

The comet was the world's first commercial jet liner, flying for BOAC.

Unfortunately it had a series of catastrophic failures which were caused by stress cracks due to poor design, by the time everything had been re-designed and fixed the Boeing 707 had taken the lead.

The Comet is still in service with the RAF and is known as the Nimrod. Basically the same airframe but with new engines, wings and avionics. Again, Britain took the lead only for others to steal the show (don't forget we invented the 'jet engine'!)

Edited by mogul on Sunday 18th May 07:48

[peaktorque]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yes very nice.

But still not my favorite!

[Apache]

TimJMS said:

No. Me as well. The RB211 is rather singular on full throttle.

add me to the list, I used to work on them and they are tough old birds, roomy and powerful. In the same league as the VC10 definitely

Edited by Apache on Sunday 18th May 08:29

[MaineRd]

Combine the two I think it was XR803 which flew with an RB211 in place of two Conways , I think on the stbd side , got the VC10 book buried in the garage somewhere

Edited by MaineRd on Sunday 18th May 09:01

[davido140]

I've always had a soft spot for the comet,

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYNx0vELSk&feat...

Someone will be along shortly to tell me why its crap