Category AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT

The Big Boeing

Just as it had done in 1955, when Pan American ordered 45 jet airliners, to launch the Jet Age in earnest, Juan Trippe did it again in 1965, by persuading the Seattle manufacturer to build the Boeing 747, another airliner that was twice as big as its predecessor. Paradoxically, Pan Am was to acquire too many 747s too quickly, but having been persuaded, Boeing went on to build more than a thousand “Jumbo Jets”—and is still building them 35 years later, an amazing tribute to a great design.

On 2 September 1966 T. W.A. placed a large order for Boeing aircraft and this included 12 747s. At the time, like most large airlines, confidence was high. During that summer, service had been resumed to Bangkok, and extended to Hong Kong. On 6 April 1967 the last Constellation was retired from domestic service and on 11 May the very last of that famous airliner was withdrawn from overseas routes. T. W.A. was the first major U. S. domestic airline to become all-jet. In the same year, riding high, it acquired the Hilton Hotel chain on 9 May, and placed another multi-million dollar Boeing order on 18 October, to augment the 747 fleet to 34. T. W.A.’s Jumbo Jets entered service on 25 February 1970, on the premier transcontinental route, Los Angeles – New York, and on 18 March on the world’s most prestigious intercontinental route, New York-London.

Pacific Interlude

For several years, the Civil Aeronautics Board had been wrestling with two important issues, the trans-Pacific and the associated Hawaii Route Cases. The U. S.trans-Pacific traffic had hitherto been shared between Pan American and North­west to Asia, Pan Am only to Australasia, and Pan Am, North­west, and United to Hawaii. Now, other airlines wanted a piece of this lucrative cake, and T. W.A. was one of them. President Johnson signed the Pacific Route Case on 19 December 1968 and the Hawaii Case on 4 January 1969, just before he left office. The incoming President Nixon promptly amended the choice of airlines and routes, but T. W.A. never­theless received its share, and opened service on 1 August 1969. This enabled the airline to complete a round-the-world service, with Boeing 707s, on 31 October 1971.

The route was not as successful as expected because of strong competition and the consequent excessive capacity offered. Accordingly, T. W.A. and Pan American entered into a route standardization agi’eement on 16 October 1974, and T. W.A. suspended its Pacific route on 2 March 1975.

Capacity Sharing

The Pacific agreement with Pan Am was symptomatic of a problem that had resulted from the enormous increase in the capacity offered world-wide by the influx of the 360-seat 747s, augmented by the 270-seat Douglas DC-10 and Lock­heed L-1011 tri-jets. The problem was also acute in the U. S.A., where, for example, three airlines all offered a 9 a. m. departure from New York to Los Angeles—all at a disastrous 35% or so load factor.

On the initiative of Mel Brenner, T. W.A.’s advocate for common sense in a strictly regulated environment which was supposed to encourage competition, the C. A.B. and the Justice Department agreed, on 21 December 1970, to a capacity scheduling agreement, so that the airlines could continue to compete without cutting each other’s throats. This sensible T. W.A. initiative was appreciated on all sides, and was a har­binger of an even more liberal approach to the problem, one that was solved by the Airline Deregulation Act, signed by President Carter on 24 October 1978. T. W.A. would, in years to come, face fresh challenges, fierce competition, and threats to its very existence.(p. 90)

The Condor

The Curtiss Condor was the last large biplane built in the United States. T. A.T. put it into service early in 1929, and until the Douglas DC-2 came along, it supplemented the Fords on routes where the traffic demand was high. It was much bigger, weighing nine tons against the Ford’s six, and could carry more people with a more attractive cabin. But it was not much faster, and its life span with the United States airlines was only about three years. T. AT.’s Condor COs (also designated the Condor 18, the B-18 or the B-20) were N185H, N725K, and N726K (manufacturer’s serial numbers G-l, G-2, and G-4, respectively).

A later version, the T-32, went into service with Ameri­can Airlines and Eastern Air Lines in 1934 as a much-publi­cized sleeper transport; but by all accounts, the passengers did not get much sleep. The low-altitude flying tended to be a little rocky, and the segments were too short. In any case, the modern airliners would soon be outlasting the obsolescent Condor design. Biplanes were becoming a thing of the past.

The NlcNary-Watres Act

The spur to the spectacular growth of air transport in the United States in the early 1930s was the result of imaginative legislation, enacted after substantial persuasion by the Post­master General, Walter F. Brown. The Third Amendment to the Air Mail Act, named after its Congressional sponsors, was approved on 29 April 1930. Its far-reaching provisions gave permanence to the contracted operators, paid them according to space offered, not by the weight of mail carried, and gave Brown powers to extend or consolidate routes to improve the system. This encouraged the airlines to invest in larger aircraft, which were more economical to operate; and gave Brown almost unlimited authority to draw the airline map as he pleased.

The "Spoils Conferences"

Things went mainly according to Brown’s plan, which was to fashion a rational system of air routes that would not suffer from the excessive fragmentation he had observed in the railroad system. No single railroad, for example, ran from coast to coast. Brown’s pressure and advice to the incumbent air mail carriers resulted in three transcontinental airlines that followed different routes, but offered opportunities for competition between the main traffic-generating areas: California and the Northeast.

But to do this, he sometimes overstepped the mark in what was perceived to be selective manipulation of the exact intentions of the Air Mail Act, and even, it was alleged, a cer­tain degree of favoritism. This led to an investigation of the circumstances of a series of meetings that he had held with the airlines between 15 May and 9 June 1930, and which became known as the Spoils Conferences.

The Air Mail Scandal

Many of the small airlines felt that they had been by-passed deliberately; and although their case was not well docu­mented and of doubtful legality, it was intensively publi­cized—so effectively, in fact, that, responding to political pressure, the Senate set up a Special Committee. Its adverse report resulted in President Roosevelt taking the unprece­dented step, on 9 February 1934, of cancelling all the air mail contracts and asking the Army Air Corps to carry the mail. This it did, with remarkable success, bearing in mind the extreme difficulties of weather and inexperience with which it was faced. But some pilots were killed, mostly in training, and this led to a national outrage that forced Roosevelt to retract his decision.

A New Life

On 30 March 1934, the Post Office Department invited the airlines to submit new bids, and these were duly accepted by the new Postmaster General, James A. Farley, on 20 April. During the two months during which the Army carried the mail, the airlines struggled on the best they could. Drastic measures had to be taken, as the revenues from passengers and express were insignificant compared with the mail pay­ments—effectively a life-sustaining subsidy. In the case of T. W.A., President Richard W. Robbins sent a letter to all the staff, which began: “Effective February 28th, 1934, the entire personnel of T.& W. A. is furloughed.”

DC-3 Replacement Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015 Post-war Problems When the Second World War ended, the leading airlines rushed to put into service the new longer-ranged airliners that had been stimulated by technical advances during the war, as well as by the commercial pre-war design innovations that had been frustrated by wartime needs. T. W.A.’s Stratoliners were recalled from the military, and the C-69 Constellations and C-54 Skymasters were quickly refurbished with comfortable seating layouts. The emphasis was on the main inter-city routes; but the networks dated back to the 1930s, and with the “grandfather” route certificates in 1938, the airlines had sought, and the C. A.B. had granted, full service con­tracts to serve almost every city in the U. S.A. that was big enough to have an airport. The problem was that many of the cities—and there were dozens of these—were too small to generate enough passengers, mail, or freight to justify service by such mainliners as the Con­stellation. Other cities were able to generate the traffic, but did not have the airfields to cope with the four-engined types. Also the airlines themselves chose to deploy their best equipment on the prestige routes, which generated the highest revenues. And so the veteran Douglas DC-3, obtain­able as conversions from military C-47s, C-53s, and other DC-3 variants, and which could land or take off almost anywhere, was in great demand to back up their newer brethren in the fleet. Life in the Old Dog The old Douglas DC-3 “Gooney Bird” was the obvious choice, as there were thousands of them. T. W.A. alone had 96 altogether—a large fleet during that period. Under the C. A.B. man­date, and like the other trunk airlines, it had to serve the smaller points, or lose its certificate for the whole route. Exemptions were sometimes granted, but every’ one had to be argued sep­arately, in an often protracted series of meetings in Washington. Later, during the 1950s, the Local Service airlines were established, and these provided the answer to the problem for sev­eral decades, relieving the trunk airlines from the obligation of providing “whistle stops” on prestigious point-to-point services. But this took time, and this is why T. W.A. continued to keep the old DC-3s in service. Bill Halliday recalls that in 1947 “T. W.A. was flying so many DC-3s that as we approached Amar­illo to turn westward to Albuquerque (at night) we could see the flight ahead of us headed west and after we had completed our turn, we could look back and see the flight behind us.” DC-3 Replacement While Douglas, Lockheed, and Boeing were concerned with providing the front-line fleets, it was left to other manufacturers to come up with a formula for a modem airliner to replace the DC-3s which, even if they were not too old, were regarded by air travelers as old-fashioned and obsolescent. Postwar airliners needed, at the very least, a pressurized cabin, tricycle landing gear, on-board amenities such as ample luggage and coat space, good lavatories, and above all, faster speed. Two manufacturers came to the fore to meet this requirement: Martin, with its Model 202, and Convair, with its Model 240. At the Martin plant in Baltimore, Allan Roshkind and his team started work on the Martin 202 (at first called the Mercury) immediately after Japan surrendered. But this 36-seat design was unpressurized, and its first customer, American Airlines, changed its mind and ordered Convair-Liners instead. Nevertheless, by the end of 1945, Martin had orders for 155 aircraft and the 202 made its first flight on 22 November 1946, four months ahead of the Convair-Liner. United had ordered a pressurized version, the Model 303, but this was cancelled. This Martin 404, Skyliner Louisville, displays its registration number unusually, reading downwards on the vertical stabilizer. The Martin 202A went into service on 1 September 1950, to relieve the DC-3s on T. W.A. ’s shorter routes. It carried 36 passengers, had a З-man crew, and cruised at 220 mph. Its built-in boarding stairs, includ- ing a ventral access at the rear, accelerated boarding and disembarking at the “whistle-stops. ” This pic- ture is of Skyliner San Francisco. Boeing 747-131 Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015 342-433 seats • 590 mph Engines *Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3 (43,500 lb) x 4 Length 232 feet MGT0W 734,000 lb Span 196 feet Range 4,000 miles Height 63 feet ^Initially, later JT9D-7A (46,9501b) The Boeing 747, called the “Jumbo Jet” from the time it first went into service in 1970, has already served the airlines for three decades, and will probably still be in front-line flagship service for for many more years yet. This will be as long as all the generations of airliners before 1970, at least from the debut of the first DC-3. Its reign covers half of the proverbial three-score years and ten—quite a lifetime. When they started service, the 747s cost $21 mil­lion each. Now, a Series -400 would cost about $140 million. In mixed class seating layout, it accommodates between 350 and 390 passengers; but in Japan, where a special short-haul version is used to connect the majoi centers of population, the airlines put in 530 seats, or the capacity of an average-sized London theater. Like all the trans-Atlantic jets, it makes a round-trip between Europe and the United States within 24 hours, and its productivity is thus about five times higher than that of an ocean liner such as the Queen Man. At least two of T. W.A.’s 747s were retired only after no less than 100,000 hours of flight time, a truly impressive record of aeronautical achievement. Historic Prototype Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015 The World’s First Modern Airliner In 1933, the Boeing Aircraft Company had produced a twin – engined aircraft that most authorities, notably Britain’s Peter W. Brooks, considered to be the world’s first modern airliner, in that its monocoque fuselage and stressed skin wing, par­tially retractable landing gear, engines faired into the wing, together with other improvements, marked a big technical advance over the steel framework and heavy wing spar design of aircraft like the Ford Tri-Motor. The resultant superior aerodynamics gave the Boeing 247 a 60% speed improve­ment over the Ford, reducing the transcontinental flying time to about 18 hours, or less than a day.

TRANSCOnYiNENTAL a WESTERN AlR INC

General Performance Specifications Transport Plane

1Xtt* All metal trlnotored oonoplane preferred but combination structure or biplane would be considered. Mo. in internal structure mist be natal. Power» Three engines of 500 to 650 h. p. (Wasps with 1Э-1 auperohmxgerj 6*1 compression O. K.),

lao be made for oomplate instruments, _ Г~Гlying equipment, fuel oapaoity for oruiaiag range of 1000 miles at ISO a. p.h., orew of two, at leaat 12 pee – aengera with oomfortabie aaata and ample room, and the usual mieoallaneoua equipment oerried on a passenger plane of this type. Payload should be at leaat 2,300 lba. with full equip* sent and fuel for maxtixim range. Perfonamnce Top (peed tea level (minimus) 185 a. p.h. Cruising speed aea level – 79 % top apeed 148 o. p.h. plus і-єга-и ng apeed not more than 65 a. p.h. Rate of olloh aea level (mlnlnaim) 1200 ft. p. a. Barrios celling (minimus) 21000 ft. Serwioe oelling any two engines 10000 ft.

Transcontinental & Western Air ii interested in purchasing tan or eore trlaotorad tram port plena*. X ta ettaohlng our general perforaenee ipeolflcatlont, ooTorlng this equipment and would appreciate your a d ті * і ng whether your Company la interested in thla mamif soturing Job. If ao, approximately how long would It take to turn out the Гіг at plane for service teataT

Vary truly youra,

The Jock Frye Letter At the time (before the Black-McKellar Air Mail Act of 1934) aircraft manufacturers were allowed to own airlines, and Boeing Air Transport had been the foundation of United Air Lines. When Jack Frye wanted to place an order for the superior 247, he was politely told that United had booked the first 60 aircraft off the line, and that he would have to wait. Frye’s exact reaction is not recorded; but it did result in a letter which he circulated to five other manufacturers, in which he set out a specification for a tri-motor that, in effect, was ten percent better than the 247 in every respect: size, speed, airfield performance, and comfort. His wish was granted. The Douglas Aircraft Company, of Santa Monica, California, not only met all the require­ments, but did so with a twin-engined design that eliminated the shortcomings of the fuselage-mounted center engine: noise, vibration, and pilot visibility.

Jack Frye’s role in specifying the basic design of the Douglas DC-1 (by his famous letter to the manufacturers in 1933) was a landmark of inspired leadership. On 30 April 1935, he broke the transcontinental speed record by delivering the mail from Los Angeles to New York in 11 hr. 30 m.

Thia plane, fully loaded, oajst melee satisfactory telce-offs under good oontrol at any TWA airport on any combination of two angina a.

jt/os

Please oonaider thia inforamtion confidential and return ipeolfioatIona if you are not interested.

Aeneas City, Missouri. August 2nd, 1932

This is a copy of the two-page “Jack Frye Letter” that laid down the specification for the aircraft that emerged as the first of the Douglas twin-engined series, DC-1, DC-2, and DC-3. It changed the course of airline history.

This photograph, of the Douglas DC-1 at the Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, epitomizes the maturing air transport industry in the United States. T. W.A. ’s line of twin-engined Douglases eclipsed all others for a decade.

The Boeing 247 was the first passenger transport airplane that could be described as a modern airliner, flying some 60% faster than the Ford Tri-Motors that it replaced.

Problems with the 202

The launch customer for the Martin 202 had been Northwest Airlines, which had picked up the first-in-line privilege when Pennsylvania-Central had to withdraw because of financial stringency. The Minneapolis airline opened service by October, but was to regret the choice. It had a series of accidents, some of which were caused by a weakness in the wing structure. After the first one, on 29 August 1948, the 202 was grounded by the C. A.A.; and thereafter, in 1950 and early 1951, more accidents (not all attributed to the aircraft) resulted in the Northwest pilots refusing to fly them again.

T. W.A/s Choice

The competition between Martin and Convair was intense, as orders for hundreds of aircraft were in their sights. The performance characteristics between the two types (Martin had upgraded the first design with pressurization) were very similar. During 1949, Howard Hughes himself, together with his new president, Ralph Damon, and Bob Rummel, newly – promoted to chief engineer, conducted exhaustive tests on both the Martin 404 and the Con­vair 240. Hughes liked the Martin better, telephoned Eddie Rickenbacker of Eastern Air Lines, and ordered 100 404s. 60 were for Eastern (whose route structure was ideal for the 40- seater) and 40 for T. W.A. Hughes took one for himself. T. W.A.’s contract was signed on 22 February 1950. Pending deliveries, which would take a couple of years, Hughes leased a dozen of the earlier, 202s, modified as Martin 202A. During its service life through the 1950s, only one 404 was lost (see fleet list, page 62), and the reason could hardly be blamed on the manu­facturer. The 404s followed into service on lONovember 1951, and served T. W.A. well, in the shadow of the Constellations, for a whole decade.

Ralph Damon joined T. W.A. on 1 January 1949. A veteran airline administrator, he had been president of Curtiss-Wright in 1932, and became vice-president and later general manager and president of American Airlines for 13 years. He was ‘drafted’ in 1941 and for two years supervised production at Republic Aviation. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed him to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, but he did not complete the five-year term. For six years he was the ideal partner for Howard Hughes, complementing, with his managerial experience, the intuition and enterprise of his mercurial chief. During the festive season after Christmas, 1955, he attended a ceremony in Times Square, New York, in bad winter weather. This was to exhibit a huge T. W.A. Constellation replica, floodlit, and with its own lights. He caught pneumonia and died on 4 January 1956. His death was a great loss not only for T. W.A., but for the U. S. airline industry as a whole.

The Need for Non-Stops

Airline passengers as a rule wish to take their journeys with­out the inconvenience of having to stop en route. They simply wish to reach their destinations as quickly as possible. Thus, during the best years of the piston-engined era, the airliner manufacturers were able to develop their products so that the Douglas DC-7s and the Lockheed Constellation series could offer first, non-stop transcontinental range in the U. S.A. (about 2,500 miles), then non-stop trans-Atlantic (about 3,500 miles). Later improvements brought non-stop U. S. west coast to Europe, and, in the 1970s, California-Japan.

New York – Tokyo

The Boeing 747 could accomplish all these missions with ease. But Pan American Airways wanted something more: no less than New York to Tokyo non-stop, a distance of 6,754 statute miles, with a full payload. The Boeing Company obliged with a special version of its Jumbo Jet, the Special Performance variant, or the Boeing 747SP. This was achieved by providing extra tankage and more powerful engines, but mainly by shortening the fuselage to lighten the all-up weight.

Pan American opened its New York-Tokyo route on 25 April 1976; but quite surprisingly, the airline world did not rush to Seattle to join the long-range club. Even Japan Air Lines, which would have been expected to react with match­ing non-stop service, chose not to; and — perhaps wisely— waited for the expected development of the standard 747 series.

Limited Demand

The main reason, however, why the SP did not shake up the procurement patterns (and much to the satisfaction of Doug­las, which found difficulty on matching such range with its DC-10s) was because the market was inadequate to justify large fleets of extremely long-ranged airliners. Transport economists and forecasters are acutely aware of the “gravity model” or theory which, in general principle, states—quite reasonably— that the greater the population, the greater the demand. More people, more traffic. But also, the further people are apart from each other, the less they are likely to travel; and this applies to business and leisure travel alike, the influencing factors being mainly time and cost.

The Boeing 747SP was a victim of the gravity theory. Lines drawn on a world map to link big cities that were far apart from each other were found to be optimistic in terms of potential traffic demand, because of the gravity model. Aus­
tralia’s population, for example, is less than that of New York or California, so the potential traffic for non-stop routes, although measurable, was not enough to justify an airline fleet. And the traffic across the Atlantic still concentrated on the major destinations in northwest Europe, and did not need Special Performance.

Today, a quarter of a century after the Boeing 747SP opened service, the urban populations all over the world have grown considerably, to bring one element of the gravity model up to acceptance level for fleet forecasting purposes. Southern and eastern Asia, especially, contain many cities, each with more than ten million inhabitants, and with strong commercial travelling requirements. But special versions of the world’s leading airliner types are no longer needed. The basic versions can all fulfill the most demanding ranges required by all the intercontinental airlines.

Were the 747SP to be reintroduced today, the market need would no doubt generate greater sales than in the 1970s. But today’s front-line flagships can all fly ranges sufficient for all the trans-ocean city pairs. The Airbus A340, the Boeing 767, and the Boeing 777 can theoretically encircle the world at the temperate zone latitudes with only one stop.

In addition to its shortened fuselage, the 747SP had a taller vertical fin and ‘clean’ wing trailing edges, devoid of ‘canoe’flap track faring s as seen on the 747-100 (see page 83).

THE EARLY BOEING 747S COMPARED

Trans World Airlines did not join the initial rush to buy the Boeing 747SP. But on 17 October 1978, it ordered 3 aircraft for direct routes to the Middle East. They were operated for only a few years. Aside from the limitations imposed by the gravity theory, the new Boeing 767 was on its way, and the performance and potential of the new generation of this wide-bodied twin airliner usuiped the merits of the SP.

Start of a New Era Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015 This is a rare colored photograph of a Douglas DC-2 during the mid-1930s. (Charles Baptie)   In addition to its superior performance, the Douglas DC-1 offered a comfortable cabin, upholstered seats, and an aisle that was uncluttered by the wing spar crossing it, as in the Boeing 247.   This beautiful picture was taken in the 1970s, when T. W.A. contrived to relive a glorious past. Although the Douglas DC-3 was to gain everlasting fame as the pre-eminent airliner of the latter 1930s, its progenitor, the DC-2, was the one that established the superiority of the basic design. It was (as T. W.A. president, Jack Frye, had specified) faster, bigger, more comfortable, and more economical to operate, than the Boeing 247.   The Second Line Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015 MARTIN 202A FLEET MARTIN 404 FIEET Fleet No. Regn. MSN Date into Service Name Disposal and Remarks 401 N40401 14101 20 Feb 52 Skyliner Baltimore First T. W.A. aircraft with Hughes Ter­rain Warning indicator. Sold to Pied­mont Airlines 9 Jan 62. Written off at Wilmington, Delaware, 22 Aug 62 402 N40402 14102 2 Feb 52 Skyliner Indianapolis, later Skyliner Chicago Sold to East Coast Flying Service, 28 Jun 61. Then to Piedmont, 1 Feb 65; Mark Aero. St. Louis, 1972-74. Scrapped 1 Jul 76. 403 N40403 14103 10 Nov 51 Skyliner Pittsburgh Crashed Pittsburgh, 1 Apr 56 404 N40404 14104 30 Nov 51 Skyliner Philadelphia Crashed Las Vegas, 15 Nov 56 405 N40405 14105 6 Dec 51 Skyliner New York Sold to Piedmont Airlines, 2 Feb 62. With Piedmont until 1969. Several owners 406 N40406 14106 13 Dec 51 Skyliner Washington Dt Sold to California Airmotive 15 Feb 60. Leased to Hughes Tool Co. for radar testing. 18 Feb 60—Feb 61. With Piedmont Airlines, 2 Feb 65-Dec 69. Atlantic Southeast Airlines 1972. 407 N40407 14107 14 Dec 51 Skyliner Indianapolis Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. South­east, May 72; Provincetown – Boston/Naples Airlines, 6 Jan 76 408 N40408 14108 25 Dec 51 Skyliner Columbus Sold to Pacific Air Lines, 26 Sep 60. Then to Piedmont 9 Apr 66-Mar 73. Several owners, inc. Valley Marlin, Inc., cropdusting 409 N40409 14113 28 Dec 51 Skyliner Dayton Leased to Pacific, 24 Apr 60 and then sold to Pacific 30 Jun 60. With U. S. Atomic Commission, Las Vegas, 1967­76. In 1996, fuselage trucked to Fresno for "haunted house" attraction 410 N40410 14114 3 Jan 52 Skyliner Cincinnati Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. With Piedmont until 1968 411 N40411 14115 15 Jan 52 Skyliner St. Louis Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. With Piedmont until 1970 412 N40412 14116 27 Jan 52 Skyliner Wheeling Sold to California Airmotive, 11 Mar 60. Montex Drilling Co. 12 Mar 60. Several owners. Crashed, Atlanta, 30 May 70. 413 N40413 14117 22 May 52 Skyliner Louisville Sold to Piedmont 12 Nov 62. PBA/Naples, 1976 414 N40414 14118 1 Jun 52 Skyliner Boston, later Skyliner Dayton Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after 1972. Used for fire drill at St. Louis, 1988 415 N40415 14119 2 Jun 52 Skyliner Albany Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after 1973, inc. PBA/Naples 1976 416 N40416 14120 2 Jun 52 Skyliner Binghamton Crashed on Sandia Mountain, Albu­querque, 19 Feb 55 417 N40417 14123 3 Jun 52 Skyliner Williamsport Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after 1968, inc. Atlantic South­east 418 N40418 14124 3 Jun 52 Skyliner Newark Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after 1968, inc. Frontier Air­ways, in California, as cropduster.   Fleet No. Regn. MSN Date into Service Name Disposal and Remarks 419 N40419 14125 13 Jun 52 Skyliner Wilmington Used by Martin, 5-10 Jun 52, for gross weight testing. Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after 1972, and registered in Haiti 420 N40420 14126 7 Jun 52 Skyliner Allentown Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after Apr 69 421 N40421 14127 14Jun 52 Skyliner Harrisburg, later Skyliner Washington Sold to Piedmont, 31 Jul 61. After Nov 69 with U. S. Aircraft Sales and Atlantic Southeast. In 1988 reportedly used for smuggling in Bahamas 422 N40422 14128 19 Jun 52 Skyliner Kansas City Sold to Pacific Air Lines, 26 Sep 60. Several owners after 1968 423 N40423 14129 20 Jun 52 Skyliner Reading Sold to Piedmont Airlines, 31 Jul 61. Several ov/ners after 1972, inc. PBA/Naples and San­tiago Freighters (HI-501) 424 N40424 14130 20 Jun 52 Skyliner Toledo Sold to Piedmont Airliens, 31 Jul 61. Several owners after Jul 68, inc. Southeast and PBA/Naples, Nov 75 425 N40425 14131 28Jun 52 Skyliner Zanesville, later Skyliner Easton Sold to California Airmotive, 24 Mar 59; then to Houston Lumber, before Piedmont Airlines Moy 66—Apr 69. Several owners, inc. South­east and PBA/Naples. 1972-1978, then to Beringuen Air Leasing. 426 N40426 14132 4 Jul 52 Skyliner Mansfield, later Skyliner Bethlehem Sold to Remmert Werner (Beldex Corp.) 11 Feb 59, then to Kewanee Oil Co. From 1972 to 1976 with Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass band. In 1988 with Dade County Public School System, as instructional airframe. 427 N40427 14133 12 Jul 52 Skyliner Fort Wayne Leased to Pacific Air Lines, 25 Apr 60 and sold to Pacific 30 Jun 60. Several subsequent owners. Crashed 1 Sep 74, Norfolk, VA 428 N40428 14134 16 Jul 52 Skyliner South Bend Sold to Outboard Marine Corp., Milwaukee. Travel club in 1970. Several owners. Reported with CAMBA, Bolivia (CP-1318) 1988 429 N40429 14135 17 Jul 52 Skyliner Peoria Sold to California Airmotive, 10 Mar 59. Sev­eral owners, inc. Sun and Wind Co., 1988 U. S. Aircraft Sales Dec 68. Atlantic Southeast, 1972 430 N40430 14136 21 Jul 52 Skyliner Quincy later Skyliner Oklahoma City Sold to Piedmont Airlines, 31 Jul 61. U. S. Air­craft Sales Dec 68. Atlantic Southeast, 1972. 431 N40431 14166 23 Jul 52 Skyliner Terre Haute Sold to California Airmotive, 4 Aug 59. With Piedmont Airlines, Nov 64—Sep 68. Several owners, inc. Atlantic Southeast, 1972 432 N40432 14167 25 Jul 52 Skyliner Detroit Leased to Pacific Airlines, 12 Nov 59, and sold to Pacific 30 Jun 60. Several owners, inc. CAMBA, Bolivia, 1988 (CP-1570) 433 N40433 14168 14 Aug 52 Skyliner Cleveland Sold to Piedmont Airliens, 31 Jul 61 434 N40434 14169 20 Aug 52 Skyliner Topeka Sold To Essex Productions (Frank Sinatra) (N710E) 11 Jun 61. Several subsequent owners. Scrapped at St. Louis, Jul 76 435 N40435 14170 21 Aug 52 Skyliner Wichita Sold to Pan-Air Trading for СОРА, Panama, 2 Feb 61 (HP-302). Then to Piedmont Airlines, Oct 65. Crashed, New Bern, NC, 20 Nov 66 436 N40436 14171 29 Aug 52 Skyliner Wilkes-Barre later Skyliner Scranton Leased to Pacific Air Lines, 18 Jan 60, and sold to Pacific 30 Jun 60. Several subsequent owners.   MARTIN 202 FLEET   – N93049 N93047 9132 9233 Acquired on 30 Jun 60 from Southwest Airways (later Pacific Air Lines) in trade — N93056 9146 for Martin 404s. Never operated by T. W.A. 9131-9149 sold to Martin Air Leas- — N93060 9149 ing, Inc., 17 Nov 61; 9162 sold to Delta Aircraft & Engine Company, 8 Sep 60 — N93041 9162   The Big Tri-Jet Posted by admin in AN AIRIINE AN0 ITS AIRCRAFT on November 2, 2015
LOCKHEED TRISTAR FLEET
Delayed Debut (or the L-1011 The advent of the Boeing 747 wide-bodied airliner stimulated a surge of airline traffic growth throughout the world and across the United States. The potential market encouraged other man­ufacturers to add more wide-bodied types (8-10 abreast seating instead of 6). For the short-haul, the twin-engined European Airbus was to make its mark, and the traditional adversaries of piston-engined times entered the field. Douglas and Lockheed both offered tri-jet candidates that were quite similar in design. The former was quickly off the mark, and its DC-10 went into service with American Airlines on 5 August 1971.
Fleet Number Reg. MSN Delivery Date Remarks and Disposal Model L-1011-385- 1 TriStar і N309EA 1010 Leased from Eastern Air Lines Apr 72 – Oct 73, Apr 74 – Oct 74. 11001 N31001 1013 9 May 72 25 Jun 72,7W177 inaugural flight STL-LAX. Leased from and returned to ING Aviation Lease, 20 May 95. 11002 N11002 1014 4 Jul 72 Destroyed by fire after aborted take-off JFK, NY., 30 Jul 92. 11003 N11003 1015 12 Aug 72 Stored Kingman, AZ., Jul 97. 11004 N11004 1016 30 Aug 72 Sold to Air Atlanta, Iceland, 25 Feb 98. 11005 N11005 1017 27 Sep 72 11006 N11006 1018 26 Sep 72 Eastern Air Lines leased 22 Nov 72 to 23 May 73. 11007 N31007 1026 7 Apr 73 Destroyed by ground fire, Boston, 19 Apr 74. 11008 N31008 1028 21 Apr 73 Stored Kingman, AZ., Jan 97. 11009 N31009 1029 16 May 73 Leased, returned to First Security Bank of Utah, 24 Nov 92. 11010 N31010 1030 29 May 73 Leased, returned to ING Aviation Lease, 19 Nov 92. non N31011 1031 1 Jun 73 Leased, returned to Interface Group Inc., 19 Dec 92. 11012 N41012 1034 20 Jun 73 Shepherd II. Leased, returned to Interface Group Inc., 19 Dec 92. 11013 N31013 1035 4 Jul 73 Sold to GP Aer Lease Limited, 15 Nov 97. 11014 N31014 1036 4 Jul 73 Sold to Air Transat, 30 May 96. 11325 N325EA 1051 Leased from Eastern Air Lines Apr 75 – Oct 75. N326EA 1054 Leased from Eastern Air Lines Apr 74 – Oct 74. 11015 N31015 1059 23 Jan 74 Leased, returned to First Security Bank of Utah, 7 Dec 93. 11016 N41016 1060 1 Feb 74 Leased, returned to Pegasus Aircraft Partners, 28 Apr 97. 11017 N15017 1063 23 Feb 74 Big Apple Express. Sold to Elmo Ventures Ltd., 31 Mar 98. 11032 N31032 1124 24 Feb 76 Sold to Saudi Arabian Airlines, 25 Feb 76. 11033 N31033 1130 23 Feb 76 Sold to Saudi Arabian Airlines, 24 Feb 76.
The L-10U TriStar, N31001, shows the revised ‘outlined’ TRANS WORLD marking.

Lockheed was handicapped by its engine manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, coming face-to-face with financial ruin (its shares dropped briefly to one penny) and was saved from oblivion only by intervention by the British government. Production of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was in abeyance for many months. Then, on 29 March 1968, the program was launched in grand style, with a total order book for 144 aircraft, of which T. W.A.’s share was 44, but the uncertainties were such that the eventual firm order date was 7 May 1971. T. W.A. TriStar service started on 25 June 1972.

COMPARISON OF L-1011 VARIANTS UP BY TWA