L-1011

[rjacobs]

My dad flew them at TWA for 4 or 5 years and he said that was the best airplane he flew in his 30+years of airlines service. He said it was so comfortable it was like flying a lazy boy. Cat 3 Autoland was awesome on it, he said when it would land, the only way you knew you were on the ground was the spoilers would fully open and the nose would drop through the horizon on the AI. It could also be evac'd quickly as TWA found out when one caught fire on the ground in JFK-3 mins(I think was the number, may have been shorter) for a full boat with nobody getting hurt at all, thats pretty impressive. The only thing he didnt like was having to go out the roof on a cable if you had to evac out of the cockpit. Nothing like the sound of 3 RB211's at full power on takeoff, thats something I still remember about riding in them(and the fact that there were like 12 or 13 lavs that wrapped around the back of the plane, not sure why I remember that).

 

[727gm]

Those AIA freighters sure were a sweet J/S ride to Honolulu, what with bunks, catering, and all. They may have kept flying if engine SB's(wink,wink) were treated like AD's.

 

[CopilotDoug]

Did FedEx develop the conversion for the MD-10? Is that just a modernized cockpit for 2 man crew?

 

[scottdonley]

Love the L10, I miss flying on it with TWA. I heard stories that the pilot's would try to land it better than the auto-land and would only do it 1 out of 10 times. It was cool looking coming into land.

 

[AV80R]

“He said it was a big piece of $h!t.”

Every pilot I’d talked who used to fly it (Delta & ATA) absolutely loved it. They all said the aircraft was years ahead of the competition.

“United and AAL were suppose to be L-1011 customers, but backed out and bought DC-10 when Lockheed could not deliver airplanes on time.”

Wow,
It sounds familiar doesn’t it? Is Airbus the “new” Lockheed?

…there was an identical situation to the SouixCity crash of the UAL DC-10…The captain's name I recall was Bryce McCormic…

The captain in the Sioux City DC10 crash was Capt. Al Haynes. He asked his dead-heading crew member (dc10 check airman) to control the aircraft by using differential power. I met Al Haynes many years ago during one of his “seminars” - amazing story.

 

[Publishers]

A couple of things,
1. Far fewer of them in the first place,
2. Maintenance cost was not good--ask Eastern Airlines
3. They were probably more comparible to the -10 and you do not see them being converted. -30 is range over weight-- the thing that makes a freigher.
4. The only thing that they had going for them was volume.

 

[fartknocker]

Did FedEx develop the conversion for the MD-10? Is that just a modernized cockpit for 2 man crew?

I'm not sure if FedEx or Boeing developed the conversion. The link below makes it soud like Boeing offers the conversion.

The MD-10 cockpit conversion involves fitting DC-10s (both current freighters and "new" ex airliner freighter conversions) with a two crew Honeywell VIA 2000 EFIS flightdeck with six LCD screens. The instrument panel layout is identical to that in the MD-11, and pilots can be qualified to fly the two interchangeably.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_02/textonly/ps02txt.html

 

[Tomct]

Had the PRIVILEDGE of riding the jump seat right behind the Capt. on a Delta flight! What an AMAZING airplane! Talk about FAST! Wish that I could have flown that BAD BOY!

 

[Irishav8r]

I dont think there was ever a factory built cargo L-1011 but I know that there was at least one converted L-10. The old American International Airways flew one (maybe more?) and it was bought by Kitty Hawk.

FYI
N311EA was the first L-1011F. It was an original Eastern aircraft. Cargo door installed in Mojave, CA in the 1989-1990 timeframe and was used by Tradewinds Airlines until a couple of years ago. The company that installed the cargo door went out of business (Owners of the STC) and therefore could not be overhauled(From my understanding). Kalitta(American International) had a few BA acft with a different door (A little smaller) All were conversions, none were built by Lockheed.

 

[Irishav8r]

The 1011 came to the market first and was successful, however, not having another engine selection would soon prove to be it's downfall.
As the 1011 enjoyed time in service with the airlines McDonnell Douglas pushed its DC-10 thru the certification process. Considering the huge political clout California weilded ( and did) they helped speed up the process and forced the DC-10 to market prematurely. There were several DC-10 accidents world wide and caused the fleet to be grounded. The defects were found ( had to do with aft pressure bulkhead I believe) and fixed and the 10 came to the market. Timing is everything as is a little help from your friends.

L-1011's were built in Palmdale, Ca.