L-1011

[hkgorbust]

American Int'l Airways (Later became Kitty Hawk Int'l) operated six ex BA tri-tanics. All were converted by Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge, UK. The RAF also had some (? number) converted as well for cargo and possibly tanker ops.
Those (AIA/KHI) airplanes had an uncommon variant of the RB211, of which spares were not readily available. A more common engine could be installed with significant performance penalties, which was an unattractive option.
As it turned out, KH management had other plans for KHI, which didn't include any of the airplanes or the employees.

 

[belchfire]

I have been around some L-1011 folks and it was a typical Lockheed-a pilot's airplane from what I have gathered.

McD went with Pratt and GE engines. Lockheed committed to the RB-211 which was late on certification (putting the whole aircraft behind the DC-10 on deliveries). Further it was cutting edge for the day. Those systems were one offs on an aircraft that didn't meet production projections so spares are a problem. It can be maintenence intensive and unless you are a real systems technician troubleshooting is a problem...leading to excessive down time. The RB-211 has become a fine engine over time but like the aircraft it was cutting edge and failed to live up to early expectations.

Lockheed made the mistake of treating it's airline customers like a military contract IMHO. Give us some time and more money and we'll get the bugs out...

I've met two types. People that understood it and loved it and people that didn't understand it and thought it was only okay.

With regards to the comments about the DC-10. The DC-10 was the first McD airliner-Douglas Commercial had their hands tied by old man McDonell himself. There are lots of things that probably wouldn't have happend to DC-10's if the Douglas team had been left alone to do what they had always done so very, very well.

There was a point when the Douglas Commercial team flew out to STL and proposed a large twin-something like a 75 or 76. Old man MacDonell himself said and I quote "Kill it."

 

[CopilotDoug]

And my reference to FedEx pulling DC-10-10s out of the desert was based on a few airliners.net photos showing some ex-Hawaiian planes getting converted to the MD-10s this past summer. But I think FedEx took ownership of those planes a few years back.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1150573/M/

 

[bocefus]

US Marshal Service just bought an ex Delta L10