Jetstar

[Swass]

What do you think of the Jetstar? Is it a fun plane to fly? I know it's an older jet, what are your opinions of it.

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

My opinion of the Jetstar is that I really, really want to fly one.

They look SOOOOO cool....

Dan

 

[crash-proof]

This is a thread that i'd like to see grow. I barely know a thing bout them other than they look reaaallly cool! Those four engines clumped together look like mean business.
I bet the DOCs on that thing will run anyone into bankruptcy.

I do know it was to originally intended to be a general-hauler.

Some trivia: The 1st jetstar had only two engines.

 

[crash-proof]

Sweet!

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?...NEb25uZWxs=MTk5OS0wOS0yOQ==&static=yes&size=M

 

[bigr]

my old man flew jetstars for lockheed in the 60s. helluva plane whose time has passed.

i don't think there has been a better looking biz jet before or since. it was a real gas guzzler. when my father flew the jetstar for major corp in the 70s they decided to buy a challenger in the early 80s. saved about half in fuel costs.

the jetstar is still a good lookin jet. (not the jetstar II with the squatty wing tanks).

 

[Swass]

When I was 15 I got to be the sole passenger on my Dad's buddies Jetstar. I flew from Wichita to Palm Springs to pick up the big man and his wife, then we three flew to Salt Lake City to meet my folks. The pilots let me sit in the jumpseat, man that plane rocked. It is one helluva loud sucker when they lift off too. That was probably the most expensive lift I have ever gotten.

 

[501261]

The Jetstar is a wonderful airplane to fly. Certainly one of my favorites. It has a nice roomy cockpit, and is so easy to land it even made me look good a time or too . It was a very well designed airplane. About the hardest thing to do on it was start the engines, reason being is you had so many differnent ways of providing power to the starters (3 cross-generators, APU, GPU, or battery).

With the 731's it really didn't burn that much gas, but combining the extra fuel burn with 4 MSP payments and it does become pretty pricey to operate.

 

[2000flyer]

A buddy of mine flies one that was originally owned by Howard Hughes. It's been slightly updated, 731's. Coming out of a 2000 I was dazzled by the hundreds of round dials. During engine start I swear his hands never stopped moving. I asked him what those four rows of round dials were in the middle of the panel. His best guess was the time zones of the world.

About the only big difference from the 2000 was the Ref speed. If I remember correctly, ours on final was in the neighborhood of 135 knots.

On taked off, two throttles were brought back to keep within 250 below 10K. Same on descent, two were brought to idle. He said it's an old Jetstar trick passed from generations before.

Parts seem to be hard to come by and any experience as an Army supply clerk will certainly help as you have to scrounge for parts many times.

Sad to say, but in today's world the plane is worth more parted out than flyable. Thats too bad for a great looking and flying aircraft.

2000Flyer

 

[B-J-J Fighter]

The Jet Star is my favorite Corp Jet. Will it fly on one engine?

 

[SDdriver]

I have herad that it is not as bad on fuel burn than everyone thinks, but I could be wrong. I use to live in Monroe La, and they had the one from the stallone movie, it had the fake bullet holes in the side and all. IT stayed parked on the ramp for years after that movie was filmed, just waisting away, but several years ago someone bought it and got it flying and took it somewhere. That was a cool plane, very loud on takeoff. Wish they still had a lot of them around, I always liked that plane.

SD

 

[JBcrjca]

I was lucky enough to get 30 minutes in the right seat of an old -8 JetStar back in '88. I was a 750 hr CFI at the time, and the pilot needed a body in the right seat to ferry it from McKinney to DAL. What a cool jet...roomy cockpit, rows and rows of engine gauges, just two of us on board. I retracted the gear and flaps for him, then he let me fly it out to the practice area for some steep turns. He pulled #1 and #4 back to idle to keep the speed down. Then I flew it to DAL where he took over for the landing. Sweet landing...full reverse and he rode the victory wheelie all the way down 13L, turning off right in front of Aviall. Showoff.

If I ever win a lottery, I'm gonna go buy an old JT-12A powered JetStar for my commute to work. The 731 powered ones aren't as cool, in my book. If I can't find one, maybe an old Sabreliner 40, Lear 25, or a Viper powered HS-125. Old noisy turbojets rule!

There's a recent article in Airliners magazine about the 2 L-1329s that TWA used as pilot trainers back in the '60s. One was configured with a 727 cockpit, the other was set up like a 707. There were several cool pics in the article, check it out.

 

[crash-proof]

If I can't find one, maybe an old Sabreliner 40, Lear 25, or a Viper powered HS-125. Old noisy turbojets rule!

They got a few Viper-powered 125s over here, at fort laud exec. Man, they look like they have a reeeeaaal hard time climbing. Make a lotta noise though.

All them ol'bizjets are cool but they pale in comparison to the old GIIs without hushkits!!! Now that's loud! And smokey...


***back to topic***

 

[Swass]

I wonder what the performance would be on a single engine, could it hold altitude? How about two engine performance?

 

[captainv]

Airways had an article recently about how back in the days before high-tech sims, TWA outfitted a couple of Jetstars with 727 and 747 cockpits. (as much as practical, of course, except that the 727 version obvisouly had an extra thrust lever.) apparently the Jetstar had flight characteristics quite similar to the big Boeings...

 

[bigr]

if you want to see some good views of the jetstar go rent the 1963 james bond film "goldfinger". although the flying scenes were done in miniature, the ground scenes are of the lockheed "demonstrator" jetstar that was used throughout the 1960s. this particular plane was used numerous times in the paris air show.

oh ya, for those of you that haven't seen goldfinger, the pilot of the jetstar is named "pu$$y galore". racey for 1963.

 

[LearLove]

When I was doing my upgrade in ATL at flight safety they had a Jetstar sim tucked away in the corrner of one of the bays. Durring a brake we went and looked at it....

Holly smolly, I've never seen so many round dials.

Mario Andretti (sp) still has or used to have one at hangar 7 in ABE. N500MA, last I herd it was for sale.