iscover
Tristar Reborn
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Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Lockheed’s Tristar has in the past two years made a comeback that ably befits the Hollywood birthplace of the type.
And if all that sounds a trifle melodramatic then cast your mind back a decade when Lockheed and Rolls-Royce, the Tristar’s engine manufacturer, were both entwined in a battle for economic survival. It had been many years between commercial winners for Lockheed, while Rolls were heavily in debt owing to the enormity of producing the new technology high by-pass ratio RB. 211 turbofan.
All three American airframe manufacturers, McDonnell Douglas with the DC-10, Boeing with the 747 and Lockheed with the L. 1011 Tristar were hanging their hopes in the late sixties on a surge of orders for their incredibly expensive new-generation wide-bodied jetliners. However, in the grim aftermath of a recession, the struggling airlines were in no mood to be heading into further debt and so the bulk of the much-hoped-for orders failed to materialise.
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