Lockheed L-1011 Tristar

[Mossie]

I spotted this on Wikipedia on the Il-86 page.  It mentions a deal that was discussed for the Soviet Union to buy 30 Tristars & license build 100 a year in a specially built factory.  The deal fell through after Jimmy Carter was elected US President.  There is a pic on Secret Projects of an early design Tu-204 model that looks an awful lot like a Tristar, is possible that it's the license built version?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-86#Interest_in_foreign_technology


Some twin engined Tristar (Twinstar, Twostar, Bistar?)  from Secret Projects:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3631.0/highlight,tristar.html


A Cruise Missile Carrier on Secret Projects:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4309.0/highlight,tristar.html


Food for thought!

Simon.

[B777LR]

god the Tristar is ugly

Anyhow, the license production of the Tristar in Russia, from what i've learnt, was planned just after the fall of the USSR, in 1991.

[Mossie]

The twin actually looks worse!

[jcf]

Ironically, both the L-1011 and DC-10 tri-jets originated from a mid-60s American Airlines requirement for a twin-turbofan,
250 passenger, wide-body domestic service airliner. Other potential customers expressed concern over only two engines on
over-water or trans-mountain routes, so both companies added a third engine.

Prior to the AA airliner project Lockheed-California had been working on a twin-jet patrol aircraft for the USN.

Jon

[KJ_Lesnick]

You know what would really be cool?  An L-1011 scaled up to the size of an MD-11 with a flared intake, a slight revision to the aft area if needed to house the bigger engines, and an increase in wingspan with winglets. 

That would be cool


KJ Lesnick
BTW:  The Bi-Star wouldn't have looked so bad if it had a blade-style tail-cone along the lines of the MD-11 or Boeing 777.

[jcf]

Ironically, both the L-1011 and DC-10 tri-jets originated from a mid-60s American Airlines requirement for a twin-turbofan, 250 passenger, wide-body domestic service airliner. Other potential customers expressed concern over only two engines on over-water or trans-mountain routes, so both companies added a third engine.

That was also due to FAA rules about twin-jet over-water flights.
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1983/1983%20-%202307.html

Boeing pressed for FAA rule changes which formalized in 1985 as ICAO's ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) regulations.

I'm familiar with the ETOPS issues (Engines Turning Or People Swimming)  , however, when American's original requirement
was written they were evidently planning on using the aircraft only within the continental US. American was after a city-to-city
airbus, it was TWA and other potential customers concerns that led to the change to three-engines, as they weren't interested
in a purely domestic route aircraft.

Jon

[jcf]

Jon,

Do you know how Boeing managed to persuade the FAA that it was time to change the turning/swimming rules?

It was not so much Boeing on their own, the incredibly improved reliability of turbo-fan aircraft engines
is what led to a reappraisal. The reliability rates of modern airliner engines really are astounding when
put in context of the history of aircraft powerplant development.

Jon

[B777LR]

As for the Tristar vs. DC-10, Douglas also tried with a twin:

Jon,

Do you know how Boeing managed to persuade the FAA that it was time to change the turning/swimming rules?

It was not so much Boeing on their own, the incredibly improved reliability of turbo-fan aircraft engines
is what led to a reappraisal. The reliability rates of modern airliner engines really are astounding when
put in context of the history of aircraft powerplant development.

Jon

And the Boeing 777. It happened to be more reliable than 4 engined planes, and was made for long-hauling. With the 777-300ER and 777-200LR appearing, A340-500 airlines and 747 airlines began retiring these in favor of the 777 family. Pressure was on FAA to allow greater ETOPS every time a new T7 appeared.

[B777LR]

Just threw together a profile: