page_title: Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Lockheed L-1011 TriStar / Development / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Lockheed L-1011 TriStar N1079 at Palmdale plant before to be delivered to Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1974. This aircraft was operated by PSA for only two years before being returned to Lockheed, who subsequently sold them to Aero Peru, which later again returned them to the manufacturer. It ultimately ended up with World Way Canada and was broken up for spare parts.
context_page_description: The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, commonly referred to as the L-1011 or TriStar, is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner by Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The airliner has a seating capacity of up to 400 passengers and a range of over 4,000 nautical miles. Its trijet configuration has three Rolls-Royce RB211 engines with one engine under each wing, along with a third engine center-mounted with an S-duct air inlet embedded in the tail and the upper fuselage. The aircraft has an autoland capability, an automated descent control system, and available lower deck galley and lounge facilities.
  The L-1011 TriStar was produced in two fuselage lengths. The original L-1011-1 first flew in November 1970 and entered service with Eastern Air Lines in 1972. The shortened, longer range L-1011-500 first flew in 1978 and entered service with British Airways a year later. The original-length TriStar was also produced as the high gross weight L-1011-100, up-rated engine L-1011-200, and further upgraded L-1011-250.
context_section_description: The TriStar's internal Lockheed model number is L-093. The TriStar was manufactured in Lockheed facilities in Burbank and Palmdale, California.
  Lockheed discovered fairly early on that the TriStar suffered from higher than estimated structural weight, engine weight, and specific fuel consumption. To rectify this problem and to meet performance guarantees, Lockheed developed a structural kit that allowed maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) to be increased on production aircraft from 409,000 to 430,000 pounds (186,000 to 195,000 kg). However, the weight problems affected the weight and desirability of early production L-1011-1 aircraft, known as Group 1 (serial numbers 1002 through to 1012).
  Group 1 aircraft have an OEW of 252,700 pounds (114,600 kg), about 12,700 pounds (5,800 kg) higher than later aircraft, while Group 2 aircraft (serial numbers 1013 through 1051) have an OEW of 247,000 pounds (112,000 kg), some 4,700 pounds (2,100 kg) lower. These aircraft, in general, also have different center of gravity envelopes with the forward center of gravity limit on the early aircraft being more restrictive at higher gross weights. Groups 1 and 2 aircraft (serial numbers 1002 to 1051) are upgradeable only to -50 or -150 specifications, although the Group 1 aircraft (up to serial number 1012) still maintain their operating disadvantages. All L-1011-1 aircraft from serial number 1052 onwards are Group 3 aircraft and are fully upgradeable to all variants up to -250 specification.
  Under state control, costs at Rolls-Royce were tightly controlled and their efforts largely went into the original TriStar engines, which needed considerable modifications between the L-1011's first flight and service entry. The competition, notably General Electric, was very quick to develop their CF6 engine with more thrust, which meant that a heavier "intercontinental" DC-10-30 could be more quickly brought to market. The flexibility afforded to potential customers by a long-range DC-10 put the L-1011 at a serious disadvantage. Rolls-Royce went on to develop the high-thrust RB211-524 for the L-1011-200 and -500, but this took many years.
  The resultant delay in Lockheed and Rolls-Royce offering a high gross variant with a longer range, coupled with the TriStar's delayed introduction, meant that only 250 TriStars were sold compared to some 400 DC-10s. Lockheed needed to sell 500 airliners to break even, but in 1981, the company announced production would end with the delivery of the 250th and last L-1011 on order in 1984.
  The TriStar's failure to achieve profitability caused Lockheed to withdraw from the civilian aircraft business. The TriStar's rivalry with the DC-10 has been seen as a "case study in what can happen when two manufacturers attempt to split a market that simply could not support both aircraft". Lockheed lacked the resources to follow up with several proposals based on the TriStar wing and airframe, including a wide-body twinjet and a stretched quad-jet (one of the quadjet proposals consisting of two underwing engines and two rear fuselage-mounted engines). McDonnell Douglas was also financially weakened and could only develop the MD-11, a refinement of the DC-10, instead of an all-new design to challenge the next generation of twinjets like the Boeing 777.
caption: An L-1011-1 of Pacific Southwest Airlines at Lockheed's Palmdale plant
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