The Last Two Operational Lockheed L-1011 TriStars Spend Their Days Launching Rockets And Educating Kids

Over 52 years ago, a jet that’s arguably one of the most advanced airliners of its day first took to the sky. The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was a technological leap forward, but its manufacturer sold only half it needed for the plane to be profitable. Out of 250 built, just two can still be found in the sky today. One TriStar is the Northrop Grumman Space Systems’ Stargazer and the other is the educational tool of the non-profit TriStar Experience. Both of these 49-year-old birds are the last flying examples of a bygone era of aviation.

Summer is coming, which means soon enough, I will be back under the sun at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. I’ve been thinking about all of the awesome aircraft that will be out there and I’m also excited because this time, I’ll get to sleep in a camper and not in a tent. Sadly, it’s unlikely that I will be among the pilots flying in, but I plan to be there early enough to catch all of the action that you miss by going on the last weekend. To hype myself up, I’ve been reading some of my previous aviation coverage. One piece I landed on was about the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and how it failed to capture the market. At the end, I said just one of them was flying. That got me thinking, just what is that plane up to nowadays?

Well, I learned that it’s still flying! According to FlightAware, the aircraft last flew at the end of November 2022. As a twist, I then discovered that there’s a second TriStar still flying, and it flew as recently as December 2022.

One Of The Most Advanced Airliners

To understand why I’m so excited about the last flying TriStars, let’s take a look back. Back in June, I wrote a retrospective on the aircraft. I recommend reading that, but I’ll give you a condensed version here.

In the mid-1960s, American Airlines went shopping around for a widebody airliner that could haul 250 passengers on transcontinental flights. This aircraft would be smaller than Boeing’s then-upcoming jumbo jet, but larger than a narrowbody. As aviation-focused website Aerotime Hub notes, Boeing was already at work developing the 737 and 747, so that left Douglas (later McDonnell Douglas) and Lockheed.

Lockheed’s biggest competition operated differently than it did. As Airline Reporter writes, the McDonnell Douglas approach to widebody development was to get the DC-10 into the skies on a firm budget. The manufacturer reportedly hated cost overruns so much that hitting budget targets could have come at the expense of potential design flaws. The DC-10’s early cargo door design allowed it to appear properly closed when it wasn’t and one flight, Turkish Airlines Flight 981, would become the deadliest crash in history at the time. The DC-10 earned an early reputation for being a deadly plane but after design changes, it went on to serve a safe career.

On the other hand, Lockheed wanted to build a plane so advanced that if technologies didn’t exist to make something happen, Lockheed would try to invent it. The manufacturer originally saw its aircraft as a twinjet. However, in those days, engine technology wasn’t quite there to give Lockheed the performance it expected. Lockheed also had to battle the headwinds of the FAA’s “60 Minute Rule,” which initially required aircraft with fewer than four engines to fly within 60 minutes of the nearest airport, and later gave an exception to trijets.

Lockheed’s L-1011 TriStar would differentiate itself from the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in a number of ways. Its fuselage utilized metal-to-metal bonding with an adhesive so strong that one square inch of bonding holding two straps together was enough to lift an American sedan off of the ground. The book, Lockheed TriStar: The Most Technologically Advanced Commercial Jet of Its Time, wrote that the TriStar’s bonds made fuselage materials substantially stronger while extending service life and adding corrosion resistance. Lockheed was doing this at such a large scale that L-1011 parts were put into the then-largest autoclave in the industry.

Outside of the factory, Lockheed wanted to destroy McDonnell Douglas on the flight deck, from my retrospective:

The AFCS (Avionic Flight Control System) list of systems was vast and included a speed control system, an inertial navigation system, a stability augmentation system, and more. Lockheed’s Direct Lift Control system was a part of the package and it is notable on its own. The DLC reduced pilot load during landings by automatically deploying spoilers.

Its effect was that the aircraft would have an easier time staying on glideslope without the pilots having to make significant changes to the aircraft’s pitch.

But the advanced avionics is perhaps best known for its then novel autoland feature. While not the first commercial aircraft to be able to land itself (that goes to the Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident) it was the first widebody to get FAA certification to do so. What it meant was that the L-1011 could land in zero visibility conditions that would force other aircraft to divert.

A Commercial Failure

Lockheed’s ambitions to build the world’s most advanced airliner extended to the engines, where it chose the Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan. The RB211 promised a quieter, more economical operation along with a better power-to-weight ratio than the DC-10’s General Electric CF6 turbofans. Rolls-Royce lit so much cash on fire during development that the company went into receivership in early 1971. By that time, the aircraft’s engineering was already finalized, and the British government nationalized Rolls-Royce Limited to rescue its operations.

The failure of Rolls-Royce delayed the introduction of the TriStar, giving McDonnell Douglas a head start of nearly a year. American Airlines went with the DC-10, leaving Eastern Air Lines as the L-1011’s launch customer.

Lockheed found itself in a position of needing to capture sales from the DC-10. Ultimately, Lockheed failed and between 1968 and 1984 it built just 250 L-1011s to McDonnell Douglas’ 446 DC-10s. Lockheed reportedly needed to sell 500 for the project to be profitable and in the aftermath, the company pulled out of civil aviation.

Despite failing to make sales splash, the TriStar went on to have a successful career, impressing pilots and going on to have a better safety record than its competition. As today’s Lockheed Martin remarks, one pilot even called it “the most intelligent airliner ever to fly.” TriStars have flown for a large number of airlines from Trans World Airlines to Delta Air Lines. The airlines marketed the aircraft as a safe and luxurious way to travel.

The Last Two TriStars

Still, it’s been over 52 years since the TriStar took its first flight on November 16, 1970. That’s a long run for any aircraft, and there’s no surprise that 248 of them have been taken out of service. So, what’s going on with the last two?

The first we’ll take a look at is the Northrop Grumman Space Systems’ Stargazer. This plane is often reported as the last operational Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. This airliner was built in 1974 and delivered to Air Canada with registration C-FTNJ. This TriStar stayed with Air Canada until 1992, when the aircraft was purchased by Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Orbital Sciences (later known as Orbital ATK and today as Northrop Grumman Space Systems) was a company that specialized in an air-launched space booster. These boosters, called Pegasus, launch satellites and telescopes into orbit from an aircraft-based platform.

Orbital Sciences used to utilize NASA’s B-52B “Mothership” Launch Aircraft for this purpose until the company realized it needed an aircraft that could handle larger Pegasus XL launch vehicles as well as be able to have payload monitoring and control capabilities.

Orbital shopped around, looking for aircraft like the B-52G, a Boeing 747, and a DC-lO. Among the factors in choosing the plane, Orbital looked at the cost and complexity of modifications, the cost of the aircraft itself, and the cost to run it. Ultimately, Orbital landed on the L-1011 and in May 1992, the company picked up C-FTNJ from Air Canada, changing its registration to N140SC.

That year, the plane was shipped off to Marshall Aerospace in the UK to turn it into a launch platform. Here’s what was done, from the Orbital Sciences Corporation:

The major modifications which have been performed to configure the L-1011 for use as a Pegasus carrier aircraft include deletion of all unnecessary equipment and addition of equipment required to support Pegasus launch operations (a release mechanism; an opening for the Pegasus vertical stabilizer; equipment for monitoring and controlling Pegasus during captive carry flight; payload air-conditioning and nitrogen purge systems, and external video cameras).

Pegasus is attached to the L-1011 using four hydraulically actuated release hooks which interface with fittings inside the Pegasus wing.

To monitor and control Pegasus and its payload during captive carry flight a Pegasus Launch Panel Operator’s (LPO) station has been installed aft of the cockpit area. From this station an OSC LPO can monitor Pegasus during flight and prepares the vehicle for launch. A second position at the station is available for an on-board payload representative (subject to FAA approval) and space is available in the LPO station for mission specific payload support equipment. A payload air-conditioning system on the L-1011 will maintain payload temperature throughout captive carry flight. Two external video cameras are installed to allow the LPO operator to examine the vehicle during flight.

This work was completed in 1994 and since then, the Stargazer–a reference to the ship of the same name from Star Trek: The Next Generation–has launched 45 rockets, which put nearly 100 satellites into orbit. Its last flight was on Tuesday, November 9, 2022, and before that, it attended the 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show.

This plane is famous for being the last Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flying, but it looks like there’s another, more obscure TriStar that still has its wings.

The Other TriStar

According to FlightAware, one more TriStar made a flight in late 2022. TriStar Experience, a non-profit aircraft preservation and STEM education group, apparently flew its TriStar, registration N910TE, for a short positioning flight on Wednesday, December 28, 2022.

This plane has been flying under the radar and it appears to be the lesser-known cousin of the Stargazer. TriStar Experience teaches students science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using operational jet aircraft. One plane in the TriStar Experience roster is a TWA Wings of Pride McDonnell-Douglas MD-83 and in 2017, it was joined by L-1011 N910TE.

Built in 1974, N910TE was delivered to Pacific Southwest Airlines in a configuration where the forward cargo compartment was turned into a passenger lounge. It served with PSA until 1978, when it was passed to AeroPeru before landing in the hands of Worldways Canada in 1985. The plane was transferred once again in 1994 to Operation Blessing International, which operated the aircraft as a flying hospital until 2000. Then, the aircraft sat at Tucson International Airport until 2015 when TriStar Experience picked it up. The volunteer-run TriStar Experience then spent two years getting the plane airworthy again.

TriStar Experience hasn’t updated its social media since 2019, but it appears the aircraft joined the TriStar Experience fleet as a flying STEM classroom. Check out this sweet interior picture!

While the current status of TriStar Experience is unclear, the plane is apparently still flying. Its December 2022 flight was just a 21-minute short hop, but that’s good enough for me.

From what it sounds like, TriStar Experience wants to teach the next generation of pilots and engineers, which sounds awesome. And the Stargazer is a different way to shoot things into orbit, Both of them represent a time that aviation is flying away from. What I do hope is that both of these planes can stick around for a bit longer as the flying time capsules that they are.

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