How many l1011 still flying

But Douglas and Lockheed were interested. Kolk initially wanted a twin-engine jet, but the Federal Aviation Administration minute rule would prove to be a challenge. The minute rule meant that any twin-engine civil aircraft could only fly as far as 60 minutes from an airport should it need to divert in an emergency. Not so practical for airlines that wanted to fly across oceans.

But a 3 engine tri-jet configuration could get around the 60 minute rule, yet still be more efficient than the 4 engine jets that were crossing oceans at the time. Douglas, which was in the process of merging with McDonnell Aircraft, had a history of building successful jet-powered airliners. They wanted to keep development costs low, so their approach was to use technologies and systems which they had already developed.

Lockheed on the other hand, had never built a jet-powered airliner and their last commercial aircraft, the turboprop driven Electra, well it was kind of a disaster. Plagued by early accidents and poor sales. After all, this was the company that had just finished building the SR Blackbird. So, surely they could handle designing an airliner. And the only engine manufacturer to have anything on the drawing board that would fit, was Rolls-Royce.

But what they had looked promising. A lighter more efficient engine that would give the L an advantage. And the financial situation at Rolls-Royce was a mess. In , it was forced to declare bankruptcy. And Rolls pointed the finger squarely at the L program. Its own financial situation by now had deteriorated. It struggled with cost overruns and other defense project cancellations. And a Rolls-Royce bankruptcy would mean no engine for the L Finding an alternative would mean massive delays that Lockheed was in no position to ride out.

So, the British government nationalized the company and worked with the Americans to guarantee bank loans for Lockheed, so that there would be an L to purchase those Rolls-Royce engines. And this allowed Rolls-Royce to sort out their engineering issues. And they ended up with a fantastic engine. But for Lockheed, there was always an elephant in the room.

See, even before the whole engine debacle, American Airlines had decided to go with the rival DC Very strange! Nice to hear the L was quieter and had less vibration. Wish I had been on one. It uses this ability to […]. Did a westbound just over 3 HRS and a Eastbound in those were the days.

Great memories. Thanks for sharing those. Nice that you got to experience both the UK airlines. Somehow I always think. I remember when Bee Wee bought their first ones. Well the L is a widebody aircraft. Thanks for the comment. Did you know there is one Lockheed L still flying? The Flight Detective. More Posts from The Flight Detective. Notify of. Most Voted Newest Oldest. Inline Feedbacks. Just saw the L doing approaches at San Bernardino today.

Reply to Robert. Must be for crew training. Clive Ansell. Reply to Trevor. Anthony Senkiw. Reply to Anthony Senkiw. Dennis McManus. Reply to Dennis McManus. Tom M. Reply to Tom M. Reply to Fester. Reply to Derek. Reply to Bert. David A Marquette. Reply to David A Marquette. Reply to mallthus. Nick T. Michael Paske. Last edited 10 months ago by Michael Paske. Reply to Michael Paske. Reply to mitchell gelfand.

Flew on them many times as a kid. Reply to David. Reply to mujtaba soomro. Reply to The Flight Detective. Follow Us Facebook Twitter 4, followers Pinterest followers. Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team. Use VeriFLY to save time at check-in! Whereas other wide-bodied jets had to be diverted to alternate airports, L passengers could rest assured that they would touch down precisely where they were scheduled to land.

These modern features helped some groundbreaking moments to be achieved. This was the first transcontinental flight without the need for human hands on the controls. This moment helped to create confidence in new forms of flight tech. There were several fans of the L during its production run. TWA praised it as one of the safest planes in the world. The Atlanta-based carrier would fly five variants of the type ; the L, , , , and There were also international fans with the likes of Cathay Pacific taking on several.

The L fleet had a remarkable in-service rate that reached Altogether, the L was a superb aircraft for its time. However, since it was highly ambitious, it was beaten to the market by a year by a key rival in the form of the DC Therefore, it lost out on crucial revenues from potential sales that went to the McDonnell Douglas aircraft. This factor ended up causing the project huge losses.